The Black Widow's first appearances were as a recurring, non-costumed, Russian-spy antagonist in the feature "Iron Man", beginning in Tales of Suspense No. 52 (April 1964). Five issues later, she recruits the besotted costumed archer and later superhero Hawkeye to her cause, her government later supplies her with her first Black Widow costume and high-tech weaponry, but she eventually defects to the United States after appearing, temporarily brainwashed against the U.S., in the superhero-team series The Avengers No. 29 (July 1966). The Widow later becomes a recurring ally of the team before officially becoming its sixteenth member many years later.

The Black Widow was visually updated in 1970: The Amazing Spider-Man No. 86 (July 1970) reintroduced her with shoulder-length red hair (instead of her former short black hair), a skintight black costume, and wristbands which fired spider threads. This would become the appearance most commonly associated with the character.[2]

In short order, The Black Widow starred in her own series in Amazing Adventures #1–8 (Aug. 1970–Sept. 1971), sharing that split book with the feature Inhumans. The Black Widow feature was dropped after only eight issues (the Inhumans feature followed soon, ending with issue 10).[2]

Immediately after her initial solo feature ended, the Black Widow co-starred in Daredevil #81–124 (Nov. 1971–Aug. 1975), of which #93-108 were cover titled Daredevil and the Black Widow. Daredevil writer Gerry Conway recounted, "It was my idea to team up Daredevil and the Black Widow, mainly because I was a fan of Natasha, and thought she and Daredevil would have interesting chemistry."[2] Succeeding writers, however, felt that Daredevil worked better as a solo hero, and gradually wrote the Black Widow out of the series,[2] she was immediately recast into the super-team series The Champions as the leader of the titular superhero group, which ran for 17 issues (Oct. 1975–Jan. 1978).[3]

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Black Widow appeared frequently as both an Avengers member and a freelance agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She starred in a serialized feature within the omnibus comic-book series Marvel Fanfare #10–13 (Aug. 1983–March 1984), written by George Pérez and Ralph Macchio, with art by penciller Perez. These stories were later collected in the oversized one-shotBlack Widow: Web of Intrigue No. 1 (June 1999).

The Widow guest-starred in issues of Solo Avengers, Force Works, Iron Man, Marvel Team-Up, and other comics. She had made frequent guest appearances in Daredevil since the late 1970s.

Black Widow appears in a relaunched ongoing series by writer Nathan Edmondson and artist Phil Noto, the first issue debuted in January 2014.[6]

In October 2015, it was announced that Mark Waid and Chris Samnee would be launching a new Black Widow series for 2016 as part of Marvel's post-Secret Wars relaunch,[7] the first issue was released in March 2016.[8]

The three-issue Black Widow (June - Aug. 1999), under the Marvel Knights imprint, starred Romanova and fully introduced her appointed successor, Captain Yelena Belova, who had briefly appeared in an issue of the 1999 series Inhumans. The writer for the story arc, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" was Devin K. Grayson while J. G. Jones was the artist. The next three-issue, Marvel Knights mini-series, also titled Black Widow (Jan. - March 2001) featured both Black Widows in the story arc "Breakdown", by writers Devin Grayson and Greg Rucka with painted art by Scott Hampton.

Romanova next starred in another solo miniseries titled Black Widow: Homecoming (Nov. 2004 - April 2005), also under the Marvel Knights imprint and written by science fiction novelistRichard K. Morgan, with art initially by Bill Sienkiewicz and later by Sienkiewicz over Goran Parlov layouts. A six-issue sequel, Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (Nov. 2005–April 2006; officially Black Widow 2: The Things They Say About Her in the series' postalindicia), by writer Morgan, penciller Sean Phillips, and inker Sienkiewicz, picks up immediately where the previous miniseries left off, continuing the story using many of the same characters.[citation needed]

Black Widow is also featured in the short story Love Is Blindness in I Heart Marvel: Marvel Ai (2006) #1 (April 2006), where she instigates a humorous fight with Elektra over Daredevil's affections. The comic is stylized to look like Japanese animation and uses images, not words, inside the speech and thought bubbles to convey what the characters are saying/thinking.

In 2010, the year in which the character, called only Natasha Romanoff, made her film debut in Iron Man 2, the Black Widow received two separate miniseries. Black Widow and the Marvel Girls was an all-ages, four-issue series that chronicled her adventures with various women of the Marvel Universe, including Storm, She-Hulk, the Enchantress, and Spider-Woman. It was written by Paul Tobin, with art by Salvador Espin and Takeshi Miyazawa, the second four-issue miniseries, Black Widow: Deadly Origin, was written by Paul Cornell, and featured art by Tom Raney and John Paul Leon.[citation needed]

Natasha was born in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, the first and best-known Black Widow is a Russian agent trained as a spy, martial artist, and sniper, and outfitted with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry, including a pair of wrist-mounted energy weapons dubbed her "Widow's Bite". She wears no costume during her first few appearances but simply evening wear and a veil. Romanova eventually defects to the U.S. for reasons that include her love for the reluctant-criminal turned superhero archer, Hawkeye.

First hints to Natasha Romanova's childhood come by Ivan Petrovich, who is introduced as her middle-aged chauffeur and confidant in the Black Widow's 1970s Amazing Adventures, the man tells Matt Murdock how he had been given custody of little Natasha by a woman just before her death during the Battle of Stalingrad in autumn 1942. He had consequently felt committed to raise the orphan as a surrogate father and she had eventually trained as a Soviet spy, being eager to help her homeland;[9] in another flashback, set in the fictional island of Madripoor in 1941, Petrovich helps Captain America and the mutant Logan, who would later become the Canadian super-agent and costumed hero Wolverine, to rescue Natasha from Nazis.[10]

A revised, retconned origin establishes her as being raised from very early childhood by the U.S.S.R.'s "Black Widow Ops" program, rather than solely by Ivan Petrovitch.[11] Petrovitch had taken her to Department X, with other young female orphans, where she was brainwashed, and trained in combat and espionage at the covert "Red Room" facility. There, she is biotechnologically and psycho-technologically enhanced—an accounting that provides a rationale for her unusually long and youthful lifespan, during that time she had some training under Winter Soldier, and the pair even had a short romance.[12] Each Black Widow is deployed with false memories to help ensure her loyalty. Romanova eventually discovers this, including the fact that she had never, as she had believed, been a ballerina, she further discovers that the Red Room is still active as "2R".

Natasha was arranged by the KGB to marry the renowned Soviet test pilot Alexei Shostakov. However, when the Soviet government decided to make Alexei into their new operative, the Red Guardian, he is told that he can have no further contact with his wife. Natasha is told that he had died and is trained as a secret agent separately.

Romanova grew up to serve as a femme fatale, she was assigned to assist Boris Turgenov in the assassination of Professor Anton Vanko for defecting from the Soviet Union, which served as her first mission in the United States. Natasha and Turgenov infiltrated Stark Industries as part of the plan,[13] she attempted to manipulate information from American defense contractor Tony Stark, and inevitably confronted his superhero alter ego, Iron Man. The pair then battled Iron Man, and Turgenov steals and wears the Crimson Dynamo suit. Vanko sacrificed himself to save Iron Man, killing Turgenov in the process, using an unstable experimental laser light pistol.[14] Romanova later meets the criminal archer Hawkeye and sets him against Iron Man,[15] and later helped Hawkeye battle Iron Man.[16]

Natasha once more attempted to get Hawkeye to help her destroy Iron Man, the pair almost succeeded, but when Black Widow was injured, Hawkeye retreated to get her to safety.[17] During this period, Romanova was attempting to defect from the Soviet Union and began falling in love with Hawkeye, weakening her loyalty to her country. When her employers learned the truth, the KGB had her gunned down, sending her to a hospital, convincing Hawkeye to go straight and seek membership in the Avengers.[18][19]

The Red Room kidnaps and brainwashes her again, and with the Swordsman and the first Power Man, she battles the Avengers.[20] She eventually breaks free from her psychological conditioning (with the help of Hawkeye), and does successfully defect, having further adventures with Spider-Man, with Hawkeye and with Daredevil.[volume & issue needed] She ultimately joins the Avengers as a costumed heroine herself.[21]

Promotional art for Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her #1 (Nov. 2005), by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Later still, she begins freelancing as an agent of the international espionage group S.H.I.E.L.D. She is sent on a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. mission to China by Nick Fury. There, with the Avengers, she battles Col. Ling, Gen. Brushov, and her ex-husband the Red Guardian,[22] for a time, as writer Les Daniels noted in a contemporaneous study in 1971,

... her left-wing upbringing was put to better use, and she has lately taken to fighting realistic oppressor-of-the-people types. She helps young Puerto Ricans clean up police corruption and saves young hippies from organized crime. ... [The splash page of Amazing Adventures No. 3 (Nov. 1970)] reflects the recent trend toward involving fantastic characters in contemporary social problems, a move which has gained widespread publicity for Marvel and its competitor, DC.[23]

During her romantic involvement with Matt Murdock in San Francisco, she operates as an independent superhero alongside Murdock's alter ego, Daredevil.[24] There she tries unsuccessfully to find a new career for herself as a fashion designer. Eventually, her relationship with Murdock stagnates, and after briefly working with Avengers finally breaks up with Murdock, fearing that playing "sidekick" is sublimating her identity,[25] during a HYDRA attempt to take over S.H.I.E.L.D., she is tortured to such an extent that she regresses back to an old cover identity of schoolteacher Nancy Rushman, but she is recovered by Spider-Man in time to help Nick Fury and Shang-Chi work out what had happened and restore her memory, with "Nancy" developing an attraction to Spider-Man before her memory is restored during the final fight against Madam Viper, Boomerang and the Silver Samurai.[26] She later returns to Matt Murdock's life to find he is romantically involved with another woman, Heather Glenn,[27] prompting her to leave New York.[28] Natasha ultimately realizes that Matt still only thinks of her in platonic terms, and elects to restrain herself from any advances.[29]

After their breakup, the Widow moves to Los Angeles and becomes leader of the newly created and short-lived super team known as The Champions, consisting of her, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Hercules (with whom she has a brief romance), and former X-MenAngel and Iceman.[30]

Natasha crosses Daredevil's (Matt Murdock) path again when he attempts to slay an infant he believes to be the Anti-Christ, after Daredevil's one-time love, Karen Page, dies protecting the child, Natasha reconciles with Murdock, revealing she still loves him, but noting that he is too full of anger to commit to a relationship with her.[31]

Natasha is challenged by Yelena Belova, a graduate from the training program through which Natasha herself was taught the espionage trade, who is the first to ever surpass Natasha's marks and considers herself the rightful successor to the "Black Widow" mantle.[32] Natasha refers to her as "little one" and "rooskaya (meaning "Russian"), and encourages her to discover her individuality rather than live in blind service, asking her "why be Black Widow, when you can be Yelena Belova?"[33] After several confrontations, Natasha subjects Yelena to intense psychological manipulation and suffering in order to teach her the reality of the espionage business, and an angry but disillusioned Yelena eventually returns home and temporarily quits being a spy, although Matt Murdock is appalled by the cruelty of Natasha's treatment of Yelena, Nick Fury describes the action as Natasha's attempt at saving Yelena's life.[34] After bringing the Avengers and the Thunderbolts together to overcome Count Nefaria, Natasha supported Daredevil's short-lived efforts to form a new super-team to capture the Punisher, originally believed to be Nick Fury's murderer.[volume & issue needed] Despite recruitment endeavors, however, this vigilante group folded shortly after she and her teammate Dagger fought an army of renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. androids; ironically, she soon afterward worked with both Daredevil and Punisher against the European crime syndicate managed by the Brothers Grace.[volume & issue needed] Months later, her pursuit of war criminal Anatoly Krylenko led to a clash with Hawkeye, whose pessimism regarding heroic activities now rivaled her own.[volume & issue needed]

Shortly after the Scarlet Witch's insanity seemingly killed Hawkeye, and again disbanded the Avengers, Natasha, weary of espionage and adventure, travelled to Arizona but was targeted. Natasha discovers that other women had been trained in the Black Widow Program, and all are now being hunted down and killed[volume & issue needed] by the North Institute on behalf of the corporation Gynacon.[volume & issue needed] Natasha's investigations led her back to Russia, where she was appalled to learn the previously unimagined extent of her past manipulation, and she discovered the Widows were being hunted because Gynacon, having purchased Russian biotechnology from Red Room's successor agency 2R, wanted all prior users of the technology dead. Natasha finds and kills the mastermind of the Black Widow murders: Ian McMasters, Gynacon's aging CEO, who intended to use part of their genetic structure to create a new chemical weapon.[volume & issue needed] After killing McMasters, she clashed with operatives of multiple governments to help Sally Anne Carter, a girl Natasha had befriended in her investigations, whom she rescued with help from Daredevil and Yelena Belova.[volume & issue needed] She soon returned the favor for Daredevil by reluctantly working with Elektra Natchios to protect his new wife, Milla Donovan, from the FBI and others, although Yelena proved beyond help when she agreed to be transformed into the new Super-Adaptoid by A.I.M. and HYDRA.[volume & issue needed]

Later, Tony Stark assigns Natasha to convey the late Captain America's shield to a secure location, but is intercepted by her former lover, Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, who steals the shield. Natasha and the Falcon then rescue Barnes from the Red Skull's minions, and bring him to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, where Stark convinces Bucky to become the new Captain America. Afterward, Natasha accompanies Bucky as his partner for a brief time until she is called back by S.H.I.E.L.D.[36] She later rejoins him and Falcon for the final confrontation with the Red Skull, helping to rescue Sharon Carter, she and Bucky have restarted their relationship.[37] She later plays an important role in the capture of Hercules. However, due to her respect of the Greek god, she let him go.[38] Soon Natasha, along with the rest of the Avengers, gets involved in the current Skrull invasion.[39] Afterwards, she stayed as Bucky's partner,[40] she also assists former director Maria Hill in delivering a special form of data to Bucky.[41]

A conversation with the Ghost implies that Yelena is working as a mole for someone else and that she may even be someone else disguised as Yelena, she is later seen talking privately through a comm-link to Nick Fury.[43]

Osborn orders Yelena to lead the current Thunderbolts to kill former Thunderbolt, Songbird. Fury orders "Yelena" to rescue and retrieve Songbird, for the information she might possess about Osborn and his operations. Yelena finds Songbird, and reveals to her that she was really Natasha Romanova in disguise,[44] she tries delivering Songbird to Fury, but the Thunderbolts have also followed them.[45] The trio are captured as Osborn reveals he had been impersonating Fury in messages all along to set Natasha up in order to strengthen the Thunderbolts and lead him to Fury, she and Songbird are brought to be executed but manage to escape when Ant-Man, Headsmen and Paladin turn on the rest of the Thunderbolts and let them go.[46]

At the start of the Heroic Age, Natasha is recruited by Steve Rogers into a new black-ops wing of the Avengers, dubbed the Secret Avengers, she travels to Dubai with her new teammate, Valkyrie, where they steal a dangerous artifact which the Beast then studies, noting that it seems like a distant cousin of the Serpent Crown.[47] In the story "Coppelia", she encounters a teenage clone of herself, code named "Tiny Dancer", whom she rescued from an arms dealer.[48]

During the Fear Itself storyline, Black Widow and Peregrine are sent on a mission to free hostages being held in a Marseille cathedral by Rapido. He and a group of mercenaries are trying to exploit the panic over the events in Paris to steal France's nuclear arsenal.[49]

During the Ends of the Earth storyline, involving one of Doctor Octopus' schemes, Natasha is one of only three heroes left standing after the Sinister Six defeat the Avengers,[50] joining Silver Sable and Spider-Man to track the Six (albeit because she was closest to Sable's cloaked ship after the Avengers were defeated rather than for her prowess).[51] She is later contacted by the Titanium Man to warn her and her allies about Doctor Octopus' attempt to rally other villains against Spider-Man,[52] she is knocked out along with Hawkeye by Iron Man during a battle against the Avengers when they were temporarily under Octavius' remote control.[53]

During the incursion event between Earth-616 and Earth-1610, Natasha is involved in the final battle between the Marvel Universe's superheroes and the Ultimate Universe's Children of Tomorrow. She pilots a ship holding a handpicked few to restart humanity after the universe ends, copiloted by Jessica Drew, her ship is shot down during the battle though, and she is killed in the ensuing explosion.[54]

As the evacuation of Earth-616 begins in light of the fact that Earth-1610 is about to come crashing down as part of the "Last Days" storyline, Black Widow is seen standing atop a building with Captain America who gives her a list of people to save and bring aboard the lifeboat, as she tells Sam she can't save them all, Sam explains it's Natasha's job to assist in the effort to save as many people as possible before Earth as they know it is destroyed. As she leaves, her mind transitions to Cold War Russia, where a young Natasha (here called Natalia) speaks with two Russian functionaries in the infamous "Red Room", she is given her first mission: travel to Cuba and locate a family called the Comienzas, who are at risk from Raúl Castro's regime and who may have information of vital importance to Russia. She is told to rendezvous with another agent, her classmate Marina, and befriend the family under the guise of a Russian businesswoman. Natasha assures them of her competency and leaves. When one of the officers questions her youth, the other assures him, “she's a killer, she will not disappoint.” Natasha meets Marina in Cuba and the two friends catch up before meeting with the Comienzas that night at a local bar. Using her talent for deception, she casually and politely convinces the husband and wife that she's seeking inside information to help her import various goods into the country, the Comienzas explain they can't reveal said information, prompting Natasha to later explain to Marina that the family might need “a little push”. Not too soon she effectively began terrorizing the family into desperation. First, she plants an American flag on their doorstep to mimic someone accusing them of defecting to the United States. Later after meeting with one of the Russian officers from the Red Room to report her progress, she detonated a car bomb outside their home when the first attempt didn't make them "nearly desperate enough". Following the car bomb explosion, Natasha declares the family is indeed desperate enough to reproach for information, before letting Natasha go, the officer announces she has one additional task before her mission is over: Marina has become too much enamored with her civilian guise, and is now a security risk. Natasha will have to eliminate her.[55] Flipping to the present, Black Widow is saving as many people as she can, but she quickly flashback to Havana. Natasha and her then Red Room partner Marina are trying to help a family defect. Natasha’s orders are simple. Kill the parents and make it public. When Natasha asks if she should kill the child too, her boss looks horrified that she would be so OK with that and tells her no. Having no problem following orders she sets up a meet and using a sniper rifle she takes out the pair without blinking. Next she shoots Marina’s boyfriend then Marina herself. Next she shoots Marina’s cat. Flipping back to the present, Black Widow is back saving people from the incursion as the reason that triggered Natasha's flashback is revealed....a man she saved is holding his cat. This dark, heartless side of the Black Widow shows why she is trying so hard to do good today.[56]

During the Secret Empire storyline, Black Widow appears as a member of the underground resistance at the time when most of the United States has been taken over by Hydra and Captain America who was brainwashed by Red Skull's clone using the powers of the sentient Cosmic CubeKobik into believing that he was a Hydra sleeper agent.[57] While Hawkeye assembles a strike force of Hercules and Quicksilver to find the Cosmic Cube fragments, Black Widow sets off to kill Rogers herself reasoning that even if Rick's theory is true, the man Rogers was would prefer to die than be used in this manner, she finds herself followed by the Champions as she establishes her version of the Red Room.[58] While preparing to shoot Captain America with a sniper rifle, she rushes to prevent Miles Morales from killing him as predicted by Ulysses,[59] and is struck by his shield, breaking her neck and killing her.[60] Despite the return of the real Steve Rogers and the downfall of Hydra, Natasha's death along with other casualties besides Rick Jones and Phil Coulson remains.[61] However, while observing a dictator who recently rose to power due to his support of Hydra, Bucky witnesses the man being assassinated in such a manner that he believes only Natasha could have pulled off the kill, and believes he sees the Black Widow depart from her chosen vantage point.[62]

The Black Widow has been enhanced by biotechnology that makes her body resistant to aging and disease and heals at an above human rate;[66] as well as psychological conditioning that suppresses her memory of true events as opposed to implanted ones of the past without the aid of specially designed system suppressant drugs.[volume & issue needed]

The white blood cells in her body are efficient enough to fight off any microbe, foreign body and others from her body, keeping her healthy and immune to most, if not all infections, diseases and disorders.[volume & issue needed]

Her agility is greater than that of an Olympic gold medalist, she can coordinate her body with balance, flexibility, and dexterity easily.[67]

Romanova has a gifted intellect,[68] she displays an uncanny affinity for psychological manipulation and can mask her real emotions perfectly. Like Steve Rogers, she possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (such as threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations.[68]

Romanova is an expert tactician, she is a very effective strategist, tactician, and field commander. She has led the Avengers and even S.H.I.E.L.D. on one occasion.[68]

The Black Widow uses a variety of equipment invented by Soviet scientists and technicians, with later improvements by S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists and technicians. She usually wears distinctively shaped bracelets which fire the Widow's Bite electro-static energy blasts that can deliver charges up to 30,000 volts, as well as "Widow's Line" grappling hooks, tear gas pellets, and a new element introduced during her ongoing series during the "Kiss or Kill" arc called the "Widow's Kiss"—an aerosol instant knock-out gas she has modified,[68] she wears a belt of metallic discs; some are disc-charges containing plastic explosives, while others have been shown to be compartments for housing other equipment. Her costume consists of synthetic stretch fabric equipped with micro-suction cups on fingers and feet, enabling her to adhere to walls and ceilings; in the 2006 "Homecoming" mini-series, she was seen using knives, unarmed combat, and various firearms, but she has since begun using her bracelets again.[68] While in disguise as Yelena Belova, when infiltrating the then Osborn-sanctioned Thunderbolts during "Dark Reign", she used a specialized multi-lens goggle/head-carapace that demonstrated various technical abilities enhancing vision and communication.[volume & issue needed] Later, she has used a modified gun based on her Widow's Bite wrist cartridge, during her adventures alongside the new Captain America.[65]

Black Widow was to be paired with Daredevil in a proposed live-action 1975 series created by and starring Angie Bowie as Black Widow with Ben Carruthers as Daredevil. However, the series never got past the development stage as no studio would take on the project.[69]

In 2004, Lionsgate Entertainment announced that a Black Widow motion picture, featuring the Natasha Romanova version, was in the script stage by screenwriter-director David Hayter.[76] Lionsgate subsequently dropped the project.[77]

In September 2010 during a press conference for the Iron Man 2 Blu-ray and DVD release, Feige stated "We've already started discussions with Scarlett about the idea of a solo movie and have begun putting together concepts. But The Avengers comes first."[89] In February 2014, Feige stated that, after exploring Black Widow's past in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he liked the idea of exploring her past further in a solo film, which already has development work done for it;[90] in October 2014, Feige said that Black Widow would play a primary role in the Avengers film in the MCU's Phase Three, adding, "Her part in Avengers: Age of Ultron is very very big, and further develops and further enhances her character. The plans that we have for her throughout the rest of the Avengers saga is very very big, and lynchpin, in fact, to those films. So instead of taking her out there, or instead of doing a prequel, which we haven’t done yet, continuing the forward momentum and the continuity of the Cinematic Universe. Of which Widow is a key, key part."[91]

Black Widow appears in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, voiced by Nika Futterman. She is an exclusive character in the PlayStation Portable (PSP) version, and in all other versions of the game as a non-playable character. A mod available for the PC version of the game unlocks her as a playable character.

Natasha Romanoff is mentioned in the Iron Man game as a possible love interest of Tony Stark's.

The Black Widow was ranked as the 176th greatest comic book character in Wizard magazine.[108]IGN also ranked her as the 74th greatest comic book character stating that wherever conspiracy and treachery are afoot, you can expect the Black Widow to appear to save the day,[109] and as #42 on their list of the "Top 50 Avengers".[110] She was ranked 31st in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.[111]

Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the ea

Tales of Suspense
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Tales of Suspense is the name of an American comic book series and two one-shot comics published by Marvel Comics. Its sister title was Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and its sister publication Tales to Astonish were both launched with a January 1959 cover date. Initially published under Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel, it fell u

Stan Lee
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Stan Lee is an American comic-book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In addition, he challenged the comics industrys censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house

Don Rico
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His pen names include Dan Rico, Donella St. Michaels, Donna Richards, Joseph Milton, and N. Korok. Don Rico was born in Rochester, New York, the eldest of nine children and his parents were immigrants from Italy, father Alessandro was a shoe designer from Celano, Abruzzi, and mother Josephine was from the Basilicata region. At age 12, Rico received

Don Heck
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He called me up and asked me to join. Heck also did freelance assignments for Quality Comics, Hillman Comics, pictorial in 1955, he drew the one-shot Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, a TV tie-in comic based on the 1955-57 syndicated, live-action kids show of that name. Through his old Harvey Comics colleague Pete Morisi, Heck in 1954 met Marv

S.H.I.E.L.D.
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S. H. I. E. L. D. is a fictional espionage, law-enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135, it deals with paranormal. The acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division and it wa

1.
Cover to Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury #1, by Gabriele Dell'Otto

Avengers (comics)
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The Avengers are a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, labeled Earths Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers originally consisted of Hank Pym, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp. The ori

KGB
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The KGB, an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. Formed in 1954, as a successor of such preceding agencies as the Cheka, NKGB, and MGB. It was the government agency of union-republican jurisdiction, acting as internal security, intelligence. Simi

Marvel Knights
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Marvel Knights was an imprint of Marvel Comics that contained material taking place just outside the Marvel Universe. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, Quesada himself also illustrated a Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith. In 2000, two-and-a-half years after starting Marvel Knights — and in part due to the impr

1.
Cover to Marvel Knights 2099: Daredevil.

The Mighty Avengers
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The Mighty Avengers is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics. This first incarnation of the team is led by Iron Man and Ms. Marvel, with the lineup featuring Hank Pym as the leader. The team first appears in The Mighty Avengers #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis, the roster, led by Ms. Marvel, also consisted of Ares, Black Widow,

Lady Liberators
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The Lady Liberators, also called the Liberators, are members of a fictional superhero team that appeared in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original teams only appearance was in The Avengers #83, written by Roy Thomas, the Lady Liberators were created in 1970 as a single-issue joke in The Avengers. Feminism was strong at the time, but t

Thunderbolts (comics)
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The Thunderbolts are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team consists mostly of reformed supervillains, the Thunderbolts first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #449 and were created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. However the final page of the first issue of their comic book revealed that the

Secret Avengers
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Secret Avengers is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring a fictional black ops superhero team of the same name. The series is part of the Avengers-line relaunch as part of the Heroic Age, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Mike Deodato were announced as the creative team for the Secret Avengers title. A series of images were

Heroes for Hire
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Heroes for Hire is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team first appeared in Power Man and Iron Fist #54, the Heroes for Hire concept originated with Luke Cages solo series titled Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. As a hero for hire, Cage tried to merge the usually pro bono world of superheroics wit

1.
Heroes for Hire vol. 1 #1, by Pasqual Ferry.

Hawkeye (comics)
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Hawkeye is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Don Heck, the character first appeared as a villain in Tales of Suspense #57 and he has been a prominent member of the team ever since. He was also ranked at #44 on IGNs Top 100 Comic Book Heroes list, Hawkeye is port

4.
Clint Barton sheds his Hawkeye identity to be the second Goliath on the cover of Avengers #63 (April 1969). Art by Gene Colan.

Crimson Dynamo
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Crimson Dynamo is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most of whom have been supervillains. The various Crimson Dynamos have been powered armor–wearing Russian or Soviet agents who have clashed with the superhero Iron Man over the course of his heroic career, the Anton Vanko version

Bucky Barnes
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James Buchanan Bucky Barnes is a fictional superhero that appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is brought back from supposed death as the brainwashed assassin Winter Soldier, IGN also lists Bucky as #8 in their list of The Top 50 Avengers in 2012. Sebastian Stan portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Uni

Captain America
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Captain America is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics, Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely

Black Widow (Yelena Belova)
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Black Widow is a fictional character, a spy in the Marvel Comics Universe and second modern-era character to use the name Black Widow. She first appears in Inhumans #5 and was created by Devin Grayson, Belova, the second modern Black Widow after Natasha Romanova, was initially a post-Soviet Russian spy of the GRU. She debuted briefly in Inhumans #5

Military tactics
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Military tactics are the science and art of organizing a military force, and the techniques for combining and using weapons and military units to engage and defeat an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology have been reflected in changes to military tactics, in contemporary military science, tactics are the lowest of three planning le

Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and b

Romanization of Russian
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Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOS

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A street sign in Russia with the name of the street shown in Cyrillic and Latin characters

Superhero
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A female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine. Fiction centered on characters, especially in American comic books since the 1930s, is known as superhero fiction. By most definitions, characters do not require actual supernatural or superhuman powers or phenomena to be deemed superheroes, some superheroes use their powers to counter daily cr

American comic book
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An American comic book is a thin periodical, typically 32-pages, containing primarily comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics and this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were m

Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety

Espionage
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Espionage is the obtaining of information considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage can be committed by an individual or a spy ring, in the service of a government or a company, the practice is inherently clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome and in many cases illegal and punishable

Iron Man
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Iron Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, the character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39. He instead creates a suit of armor to save his life. Later, Stark augments his suit with weapon

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The Bleeding Edge Armor, like the Extremis Armor before it, is stored in Stark's bones, and can be assembled and controlled by his thoughts.

Defection
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In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to one is bound by some tie. This term is applied, often pejoratively, to anyone who switches loyalty to anothe

Scarlett Johansson
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Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer. She made her debut in the fantasy comedy North. Johansson subsequently starred in Manny & Lo, and garnered acclaim and prominence with roles in The Horse Whisperer. She shifted to roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation. Since 2010, Johansson has a

Iron Man 2
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Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson. Following the successful release of Iron Man in May 2008, Marvel Studios announced, in July of that same year Theroux was hired to write the script, and Favreau

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Theatrical release poster

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Downey, Johansson and Rockwell promoting the film at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International.

The Avengers (2012 film)
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In the film, Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S. H. I. E. L. D. Recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thors brother Loki from subjugating Earth, the films development began when Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch in April 2005. After the success of the film Iron Man i

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Part of The Avengers film set on East 9th Street in Cleveland, Ohio.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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It is the sequel to 2011s Captain America, The First Avenger and the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, with a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, who had also written The First Avenger. In Captain America, The Winter Soldier, Captain America, Black Widow, while facing a myst

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Film set for Captain America: The Winter Soldier on the National Mall.

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Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter before (top) and after (bottom) she was digitally altered to appear older in the film.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
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Avengers, Age of Ultron is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012s The Avengers and the film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an en

Captain America: Civil War
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Captain America, Civil War is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2011s Captain America, The First Avenger and 2014s Captain America, The Winter Soldier, and the thirteenth film of the Marvel Cinema

Marvel Cinematic Universe
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The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, television series and digital series. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, clark Gregg has appeared the most in the franchise, portraying Phil Coulson, a character original to

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Kevin Feige was an early visionary for the franchise, realizing a shared media universe could be created with properties Marvel owned.

Jack Kirby
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Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer, and editor, widely regarded as one of the mediums major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. Kirby grew up in New York City, and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and he entered the nascent comics industry

The Avengers (comic)
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The Avengers is the name of several comic book titles featuring the team the Avengers and published by Marvel Comics, beginning with the original The Avengers comic book series which debuted in 1963. In 1960, DC Comics launched a book series featuring a team of superheroes called the Justice League. Impressed by that books strong sales, Martin Good

The Amazing Spider-Man
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The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. In 2003 the series reverted to the order of the first volume. The title has occasionally been published biweekly, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010, a film named after the comic wa

Amazing Adventures
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Amazing Adventures is the name of several anthology comic book series, all but one published by Marvel Comics. The earliest Marvel series of that name introduced the companys first superhero of the late-1950s to early-1960s period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books and that same series also included the first comic book to be la

Inhumans
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The Inhumans are a fictional race of superhumans appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four #45, though members Medusa and their home, the city of Attilan, was first mentioned years earlier, in a Tuk the Caveboy story written and drawn by Jack Kirby that appeared in Captain America Co

Marvel Fanfare
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Marvel Fanfare is the title of two comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Both versions of Marvel Fanfare were anthology, showcase titles featuring a variety of characters from the Marvel universe, Marvel Fanfare featured characters and settings from throughout the Marvel Universe, and included stories of varying lengths by a vast array of d

Ralph Macchio (editor)
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Ralph Macchio is an American comic book editor and writer who has held many positions at Marvel Comics, including executive editor. Macchio is commonly associated with Daredevil, the Spider-Man line of comics, Macchio is not related to the actor Ralph Macchio, but is nicknamed Karate Kid after that actors famous role. As a young man, Macchio was a

Penciller
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A penciller is a collaboration artist who works in creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations, hence the term penciller. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and these artists are concerned with layout to show

Force Works
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Force Works was the name of different Marvel Comics superhero teams. The first version of Force Works first appeared in the book series Force Works #1 where they were created by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. The team was formed from the remains of the West Coast Avengers, Force Works maintained a different outlook than the Avengers, trying t

Marvel Team-Up
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Marvel Team-Up is the name of several American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series featured two or more Marvel characters in one story, the original series was published from March 1972 through February 1985, and featured Spider-Man as the lead team-up character in all but ten of its 150 issues, and in six of its seven annuals.

Journey into Mystery
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Journey into Mystery is an American comic book series initially published by Atlas Comics, then by its successor, Marvel Comics. Initially a horror anthology, it segued to giant-monster and science fiction stories in the late 1950s. Beginning with issue #83, it ran the superhero feature The Mighty Thor, created by writers Stan Lee and Larry Lieber

Marjorie Liu
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Marjorie M. Liu is an American New York Times best-selling author and comic novelist. Her paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels include most notable The Hunter Kiss and her work for Marvel Comics include NYX, X-23, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men. She also writes Monstress for Image Comics for which she was nominated for an Eisner Award

Nick Spencer
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Nick Spencer is a comic book writer and former politician. As a comic writer, he is known for his creator-owned titles at Image Comics, his work at DC Comics. While in college, Spencer wrote three pitches to Marvel Comics soon after the Marvel Knights imprint launched in 1998, according to Spencer, Joe didn’t like the first two but the third one wa

Secret Wars (2015 comic book)
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Secret Wars is a 2015 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. It recalls the original, similarly-named 1984–1985 miniseries, the storyline involves the Marvel Universe combining with various other alternate universes into Battleworld, a planet whose domains exhibit the aspects of the various universes. The planet itself is divided in many

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~ Benjamin Franklin ~ George Washington ~ The First U.S. Postage Stamps Issued 1847 The first stamp issues were authorized by an act of Congress and approved on March 3, 1847. The earliest known use of the Franklin 5¢ is July 7, 1847, while the earliest known use of the Washington 10¢ is July 2, 1847. Remaining in postal circulation for only a few years, these issues were declared invalid for postage on July 1, 1851.

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Jessica Drew's feelings of isolation from other people were a major theme of the first year and a half of her series. Scene from Spider-Woman #2 (May 1978); story by Marv Wolfman, pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Tony DeZuniga.

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October 1942: German officer with a Russian PPSh-41submachine gun in Barrikady factory rubble. Many German soldiers took up Russian weapons when found, as they were more effective than their own in close quarter combat.

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Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvels modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Most of Marvels fictional characters operate in a reality known as the Marvel Universe. Martin Goodman founded the later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Martin Goodman, a magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. The issue was a success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc, Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. It, too, proved a hit, with sales of one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles, Goodmans business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55. As well, some covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled A Marvel Magazine many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion and this globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas also published a plethora of childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer the Happy Ghost, Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply. During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, Wertham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents, in September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences

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Tales of Suspense
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Tales of Suspense is the name of an American comic book series and two one-shot comics published by Marvel Comics. Its sister title was Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and its sister publication Tales to Astonish were both launched with a January 1959 cover date. Initially published under Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel, it fell under the Marvel banner with issue #19, the first with a cover sporting the early MC box. It contained science-fiction mystery/suspense stories written primarily by editor-in-chief Stan Lee and his brother, Larry Lieber, with artists including Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, issue #9 introduced Chondu the Mystic as an anthological-story character, he would be reintroduced as a supervillain in the 1970s. Issue #39 introduced the superhero Iron Man, created by editor and plotter Lee, scripter Lieber and he starred in generally 13-page but occasionally 18-page adventures, with the rest of Tales of Suspense devoted to the anthological science fiction and fantasy stories the comic normally ran. After debuting with bulky gray armor, Iron Man was redesigned with similar, the first iteration of the modern, sleek red-and-golden armor appeared in #48, drawn by Ditko. From #53-58, the logo was Tales of Suspense featuring The Power of Iron Man. Two months before the debut of the sorcerer-hero Doctor Strange, Lee, Kirby and scripter Robert Bernstein, under the pseudonym R. Berns, introduced a criminal scientist. Making his sole appearance in the Iron Man story The Stronghold of Dr. Strange in Tales of Suspense #41, the Mandarin debuted in issue #50 and would become one of Iron Mans major enemies. The Black Widow first appeared in #52 and Hawkeye followed five issues later, the final Tales of the Watcher story introduced veteran artist George Tuska as a Marvel regular. Four years later, Tuska would become one of Iron Mans signature artists, beginning with issue #59, Iron Man began sharing the now split book with Captain America, who had guest-starred in the Iron Man feature the previous issue. Sharon Carter was introduced in issue #75 and later became a love interest for Captain America, the Red Skull, Captain Americas major nemesis in the World War II era, was revived in the present day in issue #79. Kirby drew all but two stories, for which Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr. each filled-in, several stories were finished by penciler-inker George Tuska over Kirby layouts, with one finished by Romita Sr. and another by penciler Dick Ayers and inker John Tartaglione. Kirbys regular inkers on the series were Frank Giacoia and Joe Sinnott, though Don Heck, Tales of Suspense became Captain America with #100. Iron Man went on to appear in the one-shot Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, a Tales of Suspense one-shot which had a cover with a clear plastic overlay, featured Captain America and Iron Man in a single story written by James Robinson, with art by Colin MacNeil. Another one-shot, Tales of Suspense, Captain America and Iron Man Commemorative Edition reprinted the previous months Captain America vol, amazing Adventures Journey into Mystery Strange Tales Strange Worlds World of Fantasy Tales to Astonish Tales of Suspense at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

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Stan Lee
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Stan Lee is an American comic-book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In addition, he challenged the comics industrys censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation. He was inducted into the book industrys Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994. Lee received a National Medal of Arts in 2008 and his father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression, and the family moved further uptown to Fort Washington Avenue, in Washington Heights, Manhattan. When Lee was nearly 9, his sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born. He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, by the time Lee was in his teens, the family was living in a one-bedroom apartment at 1720 University Avenue in The Bronx. Lee has described it as an apartment facing out back, with he and his brother sharing a bedroom. Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, in his youth, Lee enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of one day writing the Great American Novel. He graduated from school early, aged 16½ in 1939. With the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon, Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics division of pulp magazine, Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodmans wife, was hired by Timely editor Joe Simon. His duties were prosaic at first, in those days dipped the pen in ink, I had to make sure the inkwells were filled, Lee recalled in 2009. I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, Lee later explained in his autobiography and numerous other sources that he had intended to save his given name for more literary work. This initial story also introduced Captain Americas trademark ricocheting shield-toss, which became one of the characters signatures. He graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a feature, Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent. Lees first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6, other characters he created during this period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comics include Jack Frost, debuting in USA Comics #1, and Father Time, debuting in Captain America Comics #6. When Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby left late in 1941, following a dispute with Goodman, Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 and served in the US in the Signal Corps, repairing telegraph poles and other communications equipment. He was later transferred to the Training Film Division, where he worked writing manuals, training films, and slogans and his military classification, he says, was playwright, he adds that only nine men in the US Army were given that title

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Don Rico
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His pen names include Dan Rico, Donella St. Michaels, Donna Richards, Joseph Milton, and N. Korok. Don Rico was born in Rochester, New York, the eldest of nine children and his parents were immigrants from Italy, father Alessandro was a shoe designer from Celano, Abruzzi, and mother Josephine was from the Basilicata region. At age 12, Rico received a scholarship to study drawing at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, the following year, his family moved to The Bronx, New York City. At 16, under artist H. J. Glintenkamp, Rico learned to make wood engravings, prints of his engravings of Depression-era life for the W. P. A. He began his comics career in 1939, during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, there he penciled and inked the six-page Flick Falcon feature in Fantastic Comics #1. He continued on that feature through issue #8, by time the heros name. He drew the features Blast Bennett and Sorceress of Zoom for Foxs Weird Comics, other early work for the company included a story of the superhero the Terror and co-creating, with an unknown writer, the obscure Jekyll-and-Hyde-like feature Gary Gaunt, both in Mystic Comics #9. By the following year, Rico was variously writing/drawing stories featuring characters as the Human Torch, the Whizzer, the Destroyer, the Blonde Phantom, Venus. Timely artist Allen Bellman recalled in 2005, Don and some of the artists didnt bother with Syd Shores. Rico was the ringleader of this ignore Shores group and he was always causing small problems in the office and publisher Goodman knew this, and hence the name Rat Rico he referred to Don with. Artist Gil Kane recalled that, Timely was my second job after MLJ, stan was the editor at 19 years old but all the day-to-day managing of the work was done by Don Rico, who also did most of the hiring and firing. From 1946 to 1948, he worked primarily for Novelty Press, on that publishers Blue Bolt Comics, in 1949, Rico began working again for Timely Comics as a writer-editor as the company was transitioning to become Marvels 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics. Among the Atlas titles for which Rico wrote are the comics series Adventures into Terror, Astonishing, Marvel Tales, Suspense. Marvel Comics reprinted several of his stories in the 1970s. Rico briefly returned to art as an illustrator on the Atlas series Bible Tales for Young Folk. His last published story for Atlas was the four-page anthological Western tale The Bushwhacker, with artist Angelo Torres, in 1958, Rico moved to Los Angeles, where he began writing for film and television. In California, Rico began writing novels, eventually penning more than 60 for a variety of publishers including Lancer Books. His pseudonyms included Donna Richards, Joseph Milton, and Donella St. Michaels, on both, he used the pseudonym N. Korok, later explaining he hadnt wanted his paperback-book publisher to know he was taking on lower-paying comic-book work

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Don Heck
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He called me up and asked me to join. Heck also did freelance assignments for Quality Comics, Hillman Comics, pictorial in 1955, he drew the one-shot Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, a TV tie-in comic based on the 1955-57 syndicated, live-action kids show of that name. Through his old Harvey Comics colleague Pete Morisi, Heck in 1954 met Marvel Comics architect Stan Lee, editor-in-chief and art director of Marvels 1950 predecessor, Atlas Comics. As Heck recalled, Pete Morisi, who worked at Media at the time, had been to Stan Lees office. One of my stories was in there, and Stan kept going back to my story, saying, This is the way you should have done it. Look, if you want Don Heck to come up here, hes looking for work, Stan said, Well, if he happened to walk up here, I might have a story for him. So I went up there on a Wednesday afternoon, Stan never saw anybody on Wednesdays, and he never saw anybody in the afternoon. He looked at the first two pages and said, Aw, hell, I know what your stuff looks like. Then I did Torpedo Taylor for Navy Combat, drawing that five- or six-page feature in issues #1-14 and 16 and, oddly, Heck also contributed to such Atlas/Marvel romance comics as Love Romances and My Own Romance. Comics artist Jerry Ordway, describing this era of Hecks work and his Atlas work was terrific, with a clean sharp style, and an ink line that wouldnt quit. Kirby designed the costume, Heck recalled, because he was doing the cover, the covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark, Jack claimed to have laid out those stories, and I repeated his claim in print — though not before checking with Heck, who said, in effect, Oh, yeah. We all later realized he was mistaken, both also believed that Jack had contributed to the plots of those debut appearances — recollections that do not match those of Stan Lee. Also, in cases, Jack had already drawn the covers of those issues and done some amount of design work. He came up with the look of Iron Mans armor. Heck himself recalled in 1985 that while some sources claimed then that Jack Kirby did breakdowns. thats not true and they just didnt bother to call me up and find out when they wrote up the credits. Jack Kirby created the costume, and he did the cover for the issue, in fact the second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing, the earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish

6.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
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S. H. I. E. L. D. is a fictional espionage, law-enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135, it deals with paranormal. The acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division and it was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. S. H. I. E. L. D. s introduction in the Strange Tales feature Nick Fury, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D. Occurred during a trend for action series about secret international intelligence agencies with catchy acronyms, which Stan Lee stated in a 2014 interview, was the basis for him to create the organization. Colonel Fury was reimagined as an older character with an eyepatch. Fury series reappeared as agents of S. H. I. E. L. D, most notably Timothy Dum-Dum Dugan, Furys bowler hat–wearing aide-de-camp. Its most persistent enemy is Hydra, an organization founded by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Much was revealed over the years to fill in its labyrinthine organizational history, Stan Lee wrote each story, abetted by artist Kirbys co-plotting or full plotting, through Strange Tales #152, except for two issues, one scripted by Kirby himself and one by Dennis ONeil. Steranko quickly established the feature as one of historys most groundbreaking, innovative. Ron Goulart wrote, ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening, … Which each passing issue Sterankos efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings ignored panel boundaries, the first pages … became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period. Larry Hama said Steranko combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages —, all this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension. The series won 1967 and 1968 Alley Awards, and was inducted in the year to the awards Hall of Fame. Steranko himself was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, the 12-page feature ran through Strange Tales #168, after which it was spun off onto its own series of the same title, running 15 issues, followed by three all-reprint issues beginning a year later. Steranko wrote and drew issues #1–3 and #5, and drew the covers of #1–7, stories would not appear for nearly two decades after the first solo title. A six-issue miniseries, Nick Fury vs. S. H. I. E. L. D. was followed by Nick Fury, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D

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Avengers (comics)
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The Avengers are a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, labeled Earths Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers originally consisted of Hank Pym, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp. The original Captain America was discovered, trapped in ice, a rotating roster became a hallmark, although one theme remained consistent, the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand. The team, famous for its battle cry of Avengers Assemble. has featured humans, mutants, inhumans, robots, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains. The team has appeared in a variety of media outside of comic books including a number of different animated television series. A second Avengers film titled Avengers, Age of Ultron was released on May 1,2015, the team debuted in The Avengers #1. Much like the Justice League, the Avengers were an assemblage of pre-existing superhero characters created by Lee, between 1996 and 2004, Marvel relaunched the primary Avengers title three times. In 1996, the Heroes Reborn line took place in an alternate universe, the Avengers vol.3 relaunched and ran for 84 issues from February 1998 to August 2004. In January 2005, a new version of the team appeared in the ongoing title The New Avengers, followed by The Mighty Avengers, Avengers, The Initiative, Avengers vol.4 debuted in July 2010 and ran until January 2013. Vol.5 was launched in February 2013, after Secret Wars, a new Avengers team debuted, dubbed the All-New, All-Different Avengers, starting with a Free Comic Book Day preview. After the group vanquished Loki, Ant-Man stated that the five worked well together and suggested they form a team, Captain America soon joined the team in issue #4, and he was given founding member status in the Hulks place. The Avengers went on to fight such as Baron Zemo, who formed the Masters of Evil, Kang the Conqueror, Wonder Man. The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned, Giant-Man, now calling himself Goliath, and the Wasp rejoined. Hercules became part of the team, while the Black Knight, Spider-Man was offered membership but did not join the group. The Black Panther joined after rescuing the team from the Grim Reaper, the X-Men #45 featured a crossover with The Avengers #53. This was followed by the introduction of the android the Vision, Pym assumed the new identity of Yellowjacket in issue #59, and married the Wasp the following month. The Avengers headquarters was in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, the team encountered new characters such as Arkon in issue #75, and Red Wolf in #80. The Avengers briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor, the true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, reformed the team in response after complaints from Jarvis

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KGB
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The KGB, an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. Formed in 1954, as a successor of such preceding agencies as the Cheka, NKGB, and MGB. It was the government agency of union-republican jurisdiction, acting as internal security, intelligence. Similar agencies were constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia and consisted of ministries, state committees. The KGB was a service and was governed by army laws and regulations. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two documentary sources are available. After the dissolution of the USSR, the KGB was split into the Federal Security Service, after breaking away from the Republic of Georgia in the early 1990s with Russian help, the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB. A1983 Time magazine article reported that the KGB was the worlds most effective information-gathering organization, at best, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic, in its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB classified its spies as agents and controllers, the false-identity or legend assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either a live double or a dead double. In the 1980s, the glasnost liberalisation of Soviet society provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov to lead the August 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev, the thwarted coup détat ended the KGB on 6 November 1991. The KGBs successors are the police agency FSB and the espionage agency SVR. The GRU recruited the ideological agent Julian Wadleigh, who became a State Department diplomat in 1936, the NKVDs first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA and its General Secretary Earl Browder, helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, moreover, when Whittaker Chambers, formerly Alger Hisss courier, approached the Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs was the agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated the top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, by recruiting Theodore Hall, the KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of the Second Red Scare and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment, the last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel, was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen, in 1957. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker

9.
Marvel Knights
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Marvel Knights was an imprint of Marvel Comics that contained material taking place just outside the Marvel Universe. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, Quesada himself also illustrated a Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith. In 2000, two-and-a-half years after starting Marvel Knights — and in part due to the imprints success — Quesada was named editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. The change began with Daredevil #82, Black Panther #14, Moon Knight #1, Squadron Supreme #1, Marvel Knights Spider-Man became The Sensational Spider-Man with issue #23, and Marvel Knights 4 became simply 4 with issue #28. Fury, Peacemaker, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, was the first limited series to launch under the imprint in February 2006. This was followed by Silver Surfer, Requiem by J. Michael Straczynski and Esad Ribić, Spider-Man, Reign by Kaare Andrews, Ghost Rider by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain, and Captain America, The Chosen. Marvel Knights editor Axel Alonso wrote in a release, These stand alone stories wont just challenge readers to re-think their favorite Marvel legends. Oftentimes, well focus on characters that are off the beaten path — boiling these archetypes down to their cores, Marvel Knights became dormant after 2013. The Marvel Knights team was a given to Daredevils unnamed superhero team. Besides Daredevil, the line-up consisted of Black Widow, Dagger, Moon Knight, Shang-Chi, the Marvel Knights were initially formed to capture the Punisher. 2, #1–12 Marvel Knights #1–15 The Punisher Vol.5,4, #1–28 Marvel Knights 4 #1–27 The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #70–76 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1–22 Wolverine vol,3, #13–39 X-Statix #21–26 District X #1–14 Black Panther vol. Daredevil 2099 #1 Black Panther 2099 #1 Inhumans 2099 #1 Punisher 2099 #1 Mutant 2099 #1 The Ultimate Marvel version of the Marvel Knights team made its debut in Ultimate Spider-Man #106. The members of the Ultimate Marvel version of the Marvel Knight include Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, after Shang-Chi made an unsuccessful attack on the Kingpin, he was recruited by Daredevil to help bring down the Kingpin for good. Later, Daredevil, as Matt Murdock, met Spider-Man and asked him to join the group, Spider-Man objected to killing, and the group agreed to let Moon Knight, under the persona of Ronin join the Kingpins employ. Ronin forcibly brought Spider-Man to the Kingpin as a captive, the Kingpin ties him up, unmasks him and tortures him and mocks him for being a teenager. After revealing that he knew that Ronin was Moon Knight, Kingpin had him beaten nearly to death, after a bomb destroyed the law offices of Matt Murdock, Iron Fist was revealed as the traitor, though only because Kingpin threatened his daughter. Iron Fist was sent back to Kingpin to distract him while Daredevil tried to kill his comatose wife

Marvel Knights
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Cover to Marvel Knights 2099: Daredevil.

10.
The Mighty Avengers
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The Mighty Avengers is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics. This first incarnation of the team is led by Iron Man and Ms. Marvel, with the lineup featuring Hank Pym as the leader. The team first appears in The Mighty Avengers #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis, the roster, led by Ms. Marvel, also consisted of Ares, Black Widow, Iron Man, Sentry, Wasp and Wonder Man. In the wake of the superhero Civil War, Iron Man recruits Ms. Marvel as leader of the revamped team, together they select the first roster. The Mighty Avengers was originally intended to run parallel with New Avengers, with characters and events crossing over, however, artist Cho fell behind schedule, and left the book after six issues and an additional cover. Successor Mark Bagley drew the series from issues #7–11, the series was canceled with The Mighty Avengers #36, at the conclusion of the Siege storyline. The team was relaunched in September 2013 under the team of Al Ewing. The new team is more street-level, and is led by Luke Cage, the team contains new versions of Ronin, White Tiger and Power Man, plus Blue Marvel, the Superior Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Spectrum, the Falcon and the new hero Spider Hero. Following the Skrulls eventual defeat and the subsequent dissolution of S. H. I. E. L. D, the officially sanctioned team of Avengers, now led by Norman Osborn under the H. A. M. M. E. R. Banner, is spun off into the pages of Dark Avengers. In response, Henry Pym, in his latest superhero persona as the new Wasp, leads an Avengers team outside the U. S. and H. A. M. M. E. R. s jurisdiction. It is granted official recognition outside the U. S. by the international organization G. R. A. M. P. A. and combats supervillains and other entities including Chthon, and the Unspoken. During the events of Infinity, a new team of Mighty Avengers are formed during Thanos invasion of Earth. With the main Avengers branch off in space, the defense of New York falls to a group of former Avengers and they are given the name Mighty Avengers after a Twitter hashtag used to describe the group. During the Inhumanity storyline, Luke Cage keeps the Mighty Avengers together, the Mighty Avengers now have the purpose of helping those in need. During this time, the Spider Hero becomes the new Ronin, during the Last Days part of the Secret Wars storyline, Steve Rogers tells the Mighty Avengers team that the world is ending and asks them to side with him or the Illuminati. Two weeks before the end of the world, the Mighty Avengers join Steve Rogers in a fight against the Illuminati, the Mighty Avengers help out in the incursion against Earth-1610. The Mighty Avengers were founded by Ms. Marvel and Iron Man, after the events of Dark Reign, the Mighty Avengers were followed by a reorganized Initiative team published in Dark Avengers, and a new international team was featured in Mighty Avengers

11.
Lady Liberators
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The Lady Liberators, also called the Liberators, are members of a fictional superhero team that appeared in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original teams only appearance was in The Avengers #83, written by Roy Thomas, the Lady Liberators were created in 1970 as a single-issue joke in The Avengers. Feminism was strong at the time, but the creators and audiences of the book industry was still overwhelmingly male. The Lady Liberators were a group of female Avengers mind-controlled by the Enchantress, the original team consisted of the Wasp, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and Madame Medusa, and were led by Valkyrie. A profile of the Lady Liberators at Marvel Appendix

12.
Thunderbolts (comics)
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The Thunderbolts are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team consists mostly of reformed supervillains, the Thunderbolts first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #449 and were created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. However the final page of the first issue of their comic book revealed that the Thunderbolts were the Masters of Evil in disguise, themes of redemption and the nature of heroism are often featured in Thunderbolts comics. In subsequent storylines, the group rejects their leader Baron Helmut Zemo and attempts to become heroes in their own right, the book has also garnered critical praise for its use of secondary characters from other Marvel Comics and its use of continuity-themed storytelling. The Thunderbolts was a concept created for Marvel Comics by Kurt Busiek. Most of the used in the final concept were reimagined versions of existing Marvel characters, with additional original characters for the series developed by Busiek. The pair also created the new identities for the Masters of Evil. Busiek recalled, The actual origin of Thunderbolts came when I used to live in New Jersey, to keep myself awake, Id give myself books to write, and work out about two to three years of continuity. One trip, I assigned myself Avengers, and came up with the plan that the Masters of Evil would ultimately conquer them by posing as new heroes, at the time, I thought it was a neat idea, and filed it away. The Thunderbolts first appeared as a team in The Incredible Hulk #449, written by Peter David, originally intended to be a similar team known as the Echelon, the synchronization of the plans led to the Thunderbolts being used instead as a teaser for their own series. No mention was made of the connection between the Thunderbolts and the Masters of Evil in this appearance, save perhaps for the Hulk almost recognizing Meteorites voice, the team also appeared in a one-shot called Tales of the Marvel Universe. The twist would not be revealed until the first issue of their own series, soon after the publication of The Incredible Hulk #449, the teams own series premiered. The first issue, cover dated April 1997, was played largely as a superhero story. Marvel managed to keep the secret of the Thunderbolts true villainous identities tightly under wraps before the book launched. When word got out, the first issue sold out so quickly that Marvel not only offered a second printing, fabian Nicieza replaced Busiek in issue #34. Patrick Zircher, after a couple of fill-ins, replaced Bagley in issue #51, however, the new direction for the series—an underground fighting circuit that employed predominantly newly created super-villain characters—was a commercial failure and canceled after six issues. In 2004, Marvel Comics launched a series titled Avengers/Thunderbolts. The limited series ran for the number of issues as the reformatted Thunderbolts arc

13.
Secret Avengers
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Secret Avengers is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring a fictional black ops superhero team of the same name. The series is part of the Avengers-line relaunch as part of the Heroic Age, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Mike Deodato were announced as the creative team for the Secret Avengers title. A series of images were released by Marvel to promote the upcoming series in February 2010. The series started in late May 2010, as of the first issue, the roster includes Beast, War Machine, Valkyrie, Moon Knight, Nova, Black Widow, Sharon Carter, and Ant-Man, and the team is led by Captain Steve Rogers. In regards to the tone of the new title, Brubaker has said, After Brubaker left the title, author Nick Spencer wrote the first Secret Avengers Point One issue and three Fear Itself tie-in one-shots. Secret Avengers was then written by Warren Ellis from issues #16-21 and scribe Rick Remender picked up at #21.1 with former Hulk artist, Remender confirmed that his final issue of Secret Avengers will be with issue #37. At New York ComiCon 2012 it was announced that the title would be relaunched as part of the Marvel NOW. initiative, Spencer said, This really is a S. H. I. E. L. D. I think its something weve been long suffering for and is long overdue and this gave us a nice excuse to get a proper S. H. I. E. L. D. This Avengers initiative within S. H. I. E. L. D. is obviously a big point of the book. So Nick Fury and Agent Coulson are very involved in the missions. Nick will be in the field with the team, hes the S. H. I. E. L. D agent that goes with these characters on the missions. Coulson has a fun role in that hes backup and support, hes the guy who makes the pitch, and brings in the team. So theyre a big part of issue and in some ways theyre even our leads. The third volume was cancelled with #15 in April,2015, after the events of Dark Reign and Siege, Norman Osborn was deposed as Americas top cop and his organization H. A. M. M. E. R. was disbanded. Captain Rogers then forms the Secret Avengers as a group of superheroes to operate under a veil of secrecy, the opening issues show the team being proactive about known threats and cleaning them up, black ops style. They are in opposition to a group called the Shadow Council seemingly led by Nick Fury. In one such plot they find an artifact, the Tentacle Crown. After some research the group finds a link to the Roxxon Corporation, richard Rider is on the case, and in his investigations he finds another crown, the Serpent Crown

14.
Heroes for Hire
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Heroes for Hire is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team first appeared in Power Man and Iron Fist #54, the Heroes for Hire concept originated with Luke Cages solo series titled Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. As a hero for hire, Cage tried to merge the usually pro bono world of superheroics with the practicality of private investigation. Although the title changed to Luke Cage, Power Man in issue #17, initially, Heroes for Hire, Inc. was a small business licensed by the state of New York that offered a full line of professional investigation and protection services. Heroes for Hire was owned by Luke Cage and Daniel Rand and it had offices on Park Avenue and two paid employees, Jenny Royce, the groups secretary and Jeryn Hogarth, the groups lawyer and business representative. Heroes for Hire would not accept jobs that involved extralegal activities and his own series cancelled due to low sales, Iron Fist joined the cast of Luke Cage, Power Man in a three-part storyline in #48–50. The comics name changed to Power Man and Iron Fist from #50 upwards, the two formed a new Heroes for Hire, Inc, founded by attorney Jeryn Hogarth and staffed by administrative wunderkind Jennie Royce. Iron Fist supporting cast characters Colleen Wing and Misty Knight often appeared also and this partnership lasted until the series final issue #125, with Cage blamed for the apparent death of Iron Fist. In 1996, as a consequence of the Onslaught and Heroes Reborn storylines, following up on the status of the Oracle Corporation that Namor had set up in the pages of Namor, Jim Hammond and Danny Rand decided to set up a new Heroes for Hire organization. Iron Fist recruited Luke Cage for this, Heroes for Hire was written by John Ostrander and illustrated by Pasqual Ferry. It lasted for 19 issues before it was cancelled, a new Heroes for Hire series was developed as a spin-off of 2006s Civil War storyline. The book was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray who also wrote the Daughters of the Dragon mini-series starring Misty. Many characters and plots followed from this series into Heroes for Hire, the series then changed hands and was written by Zeb Wells, with art by Terry Pallot. The team roster for the book is Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, the new Tarantula, Shang-Chi, Humbug, Orka, Black Cat and Paladin and they serve as enforcers for the Superhuman Registration Act. After the murder of Goliath in battle against the Cyborg Clone of Thor, after learning Captain Americas location from a Pixiu, the team tracks him down. While Misty and the team just want to talk and find a peaceful solution, Paladin disables the team with knockout gas and attempts to capture Captain America. Shang-Chis martial arts training had allowed him to hold his breath long enough to avoid the effects of the gas, Shang-Chi defeats Paladin and switches his uniform with Captain America. Arrives, Paladin is unintentionally taken into custody, shortly thereafter, Captain America and the Heroes for Hire part ways, and the anti-regs abandon their now compromised base

Heroes for Hire
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Heroes for Hire vol. 1 #1, by Pasqual Ferry.

15.
Hawkeye (comics)
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Hawkeye is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Don Heck, the character first appeared as a villain in Tales of Suspense #57 and he has been a prominent member of the team ever since. He was also ranked at #44 on IGNs Top 100 Comic Book Heroes list, Hawkeye is portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a shared fictional universe that is the setting of films produced by Marvel Studios. Renner first made an cameo appearance in Thor and later played a larger role in The Avengers, Avengers, Age of Ultron and Captain America. Hawkeye was introduced as a reluctant villain in Tales of Suspense #57, after two more appearances as a villain in Tales of Suspense #60 and #64, Hawkeye joined the ranks of the Avengers in Avengers Vol.1 #16. He became a member of the team and has made numerous appearances in all five volumes. Hawkeye was also part of the Avengers in Secret Wars #1–12, Hawkeye featured prominently in the limited series West Coast Avengers #1–4, before appearing in the ongoing title, which ran for 102 issues from October 1985–January 1994. The title was renamed Avengers West Coast from #46, Hawkeye also starred concurrently in almost every issue of Solo Avengers which ran for 40 issues from December 1987–January 1991. From 1998 to 2002, Hawkeye featured significantly in issues #20–75 and Annual #2000 of the title Thunderbolts, written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza. He appeared as a character in Avengers Academy from issue #21 through its final issue #39 and as team leader in Secret Avengers from issue #22 through its final issue. Hawkeye appeared in Vol.2 of Secret Avengers by Nick Spencer, Hawkeye appeared as a regular character in the 2010-2013 Secret Avengers series, from issue #21.1 through its final issue #37. Hawkeye featured in the Marvel crossover event House of M and he later appeared in the New Avengers series from issues #26–64 plus New Avengers Annual #2 and Annual #3. Continuing as Ronin, the played a important part in the crossover event Secret Invasion #1–8. The company wide crossover event Dark Reign saw Hawkeye feature prominently in New Avengers, The Reunion #1–4 and Dark Reign and he later went on to feature in the Siege #1–4 crossover event. Hawkeye has appeared in solo adventures over the years. He appeared in Hawkeye Vol.1 #1–4, written by Mark Gruenwald, Hawkeye then appeared in Hawkeye Vol.2 #1–4 and Hawkeye, Earths Mightiest Marksman #1. In 2003, Hawkeye had a short lived on-going series, Hawkeye Vol.3, #1–8, writer Jim McCann and artist David Lopez had another unsuccessful attempt at an ongoing series with Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1–6. The series did however spin into two limited series, beginning with Widowmaker #1–4 and then Hawkeye, Blindspot #1–4, a fifth volume, entitled All-New Hawkeye, began in March 2015, written by Jeff Lemire with art by Ramon Perez

Hawkeye (comics)
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Cover of Hawkeye vol. 3, #5 (April 2004). Art by Carlos Pacheco and Jesús Merino.
Hawkeye (comics)
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Hawkeye's first self-titled comic book and first appearance with Mockingbird on the cover of Hawkeye Vol.1 #1 (Sept. 1983). Art by Mark Gruenwald.
Hawkeye (comics)
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Hawkeye's first appearance on the cover of Tales of Suspense #57 (September 1964). Art by Don Heck.
Hawkeye (comics)
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Clint Barton sheds his Hawkeye identity to be the second Goliath on the cover of Avengers #63 (April 1969). Art by Gene Colan.

16.
Crimson Dynamo
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Crimson Dynamo is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most of whom have been supervillains. The various Crimson Dynamos have been powered armor–wearing Russian or Soviet agents who have clashed with the superhero Iron Man over the course of his heroic career, the Anton Vanko version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Tales of Suspense #46 and was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. The Boris Turgenov version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52 and was created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, the Alex Nevsky version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Iron Man #15 and was created by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska. The Yuri Petrovich version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Champions #7 and was created by Tony Isabella, the Dimitri Bukharin version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Iron Man #109 and was created by Bill Mantlo and Carmine Infantino. The Valentin Shatalov version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Iron Man #255 and was created by Glenn Herdling, Fabian Nicieza, the seventh Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Captain America vol. 3, #32 and was created by Dan Jurgens, the Gennady Gavrilov version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Crimson Dynamo #1 and was created by John Jackson Miller and Steve Ellis. The ninth Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Secret War #3 and was created by Brian Michael Bendis, the tenth Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Iron Man vol. 4, #7 and was created by Daniel Knauf, Charles Knauf, the Boris Vadim version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Hulk vol. 2, #1 and was created by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinnes, the Galina Nemirovsky version of Crimson Dynamo first appeared in Hulk, Winter Guard #1 and was created by Steve Ellis and David Gallaher. Professor Anton Vanko, the first Crimson Dynamo, was also the armors creator, a Soviet scientist of Armenian birth with a Ph. D in Physics, Vanko was one of the worlds foremost experts on electricity. At the behest of the USSR, Vanko built a powered exoskeleton capable of performing incredible feats and he also designed the Unicorns helmet and instructed the Russian agent in its use. As the Crimson Dynamo, Vanko was sent by the Soviet Government to sabotage Stark Industries, Vankos armor allowed him to generate and control electricity in all of its forms, such as firing devastating bolts of lightning and flying using electromagnetic propulsion. Unlike Iron Man, who at the time had to charge the chest plate powering his suit. After losing to Iron Man, Vanko defected to the United States out of fear that his superiors would kill him for failing, Vanko began to work for Tony Stark as one of his chief scientists. Eventually, the two friends and Vanko developed pride and admiration for his new home. Unfortunately, soon the Soviets came for Vanko, just as he predicted, the KGB sent their top agent Black Widow as well as Boris Turgenev to apprehend him. Vanko died saving Iron Man by firing an unstable, experimental laser pistol at Turgenev, Boris Turgenov, the second Crimson Dynamo, had a very short career as a supervillain. Turgenov came to the United States with the Black Widow to kill Anton Vanko, Tony Stark, Turgenov almost carried out his mission, virtually defeating Iron Man with the stolen Crimson Dynamo suit

17.
Bucky Barnes
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James Buchanan Bucky Barnes is a fictional superhero that appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is brought back from supposed death as the brainwashed assassin Winter Soldier, IGN also lists Bucky as #8 in their list of The Top 50 Avengers in 2012. Sebastian Stan portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when Joe Simon created his initial sketch of Captain America for Marvel Comics precursor Timely Comics in 1940, he included a young sidekick. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, after Bucky was shot and seriously wounded in a 1948 Captain America story, he was succeeded by Captain Americas girlfriend Betsy Ross, who became the superhero Golden Girl. Captain America Comics ended with #75, by time the series had been titled Captain Americas Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes. Sales were poor, however, and the series was discontinued with Captain America #78, retroactive continuity, beginning with The Avengers #4, established that the original Captain America and Bucky went missing near the end of World War II and were secretly replaced by then-U. S. President Harry S. Truman with successor heroes using those identities, Bucky appeared in very occasional flashbacks from the 1960s on, and co-starred with Captain America in flashback World War II adventures in Tales of Suspense #63-71. His apparent death was depicted in flashback in The Avengers #56, in 2005, series writer Ed Brubaker returned Bucky from his seeming death near the end of World War II. Buckys death had been notable as one of the few comic book deaths that remained unreversed, an aphorism among comic book fans, known as the Bucky Clause, was that in comics, No one stays dead except Bucky, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben. However, all three were back to life in their respective universes in 2006, although Uncle Ben turned out to be an alternate Ben from another reality. Buckys death has also used to explain why the Marvel Universe has virtually no young sidekicks. Stan Lee also disliked the plot device of kid sidekicks, saying in the 1970s that One of my many pet peeves has always been the young sidekick of the average superhero. Roger Stern and John Byrne had also considered bringing Bucky back, a climactic scene of Buckys return involves Captain America using the reality-altering Cosmic Cube to restore the Winter Soldiers memories. Writer Ed Brubaker, in an interview, said he intended no loophole, as Captain America, he appeared as a regular character in the 2010-2013 Avengers series, from issue #1 through issue #7, and in issue #12.1. After the events of the 2011 Fear Itself storyline, Bucky returned to the role of Winter Soldier, Agent in an eponymous series that lasted 19 issues. The first 14 issues were written by Brubaker, with the last story arc written by Jason Latour, since January 2014, Bucky has been part of the cast of James Robinsons All-New Invaders. In July 2014, it was announced that Bucky would again have his own series, entitled Bucky Barnes, the series is written by Ales Kot with art by Marco Rudy, and began in October 2014. James Buchanan Barnes was born in Shelbyville, Indiana in 1925 and he is an orphan, the son of a soldier killed in training at U. S. Army Camp Lehigh in Virginia just before the United States entry into World War II

18.
Captain America
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Captain America is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics, Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely Comics most popular character during the wartime period. The popularity of superheroes waned following the war and the Captain America comic book was discontinued in 1950, since Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964, Captain America has remained in publication. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived in suspended animation until he was revived in the present day. Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character to have appeared in media outside comics with the release of the 1944 movie serial, in 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume. I wrote the name Super American at the bottom of the page, Simon said in his autobiography, there were too many Supers around. Captain America had a sound to it. There werent a lot of captains in comics, the boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team. Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead, there were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from Kirbys, if they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset, youre still number one, Jack, I assured him. Its just a matter of a deadline for the first issue. Ill make the deadline, Jack promised, ill pencil it myself and make the deadline. I hadnt expected this kind of reaction, but I acceded to Kirbys wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby, I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas, then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures. Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirbys regular letterer and we wanted to have our say too

19.
Black Widow (Yelena Belova)
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Black Widow is a fictional character, a spy in the Marvel Comics Universe and second modern-era character to use the name Black Widow. She first appears in Inhumans #5 and was created by Devin Grayson, Belova, the second modern Black Widow after Natasha Romanova, was initially a post-Soviet Russian spy of the GRU. She debuted briefly in Inhumans #5, and was introduced in the 1999 Marvel Knights mini-series Black Widow. A second miniseries, also titled Black Widow and featuring Natasha Romanoff and Daredevil, the next year, she did a solo turn in her own three-issue miniseries, also titled Black Widow under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint. Belova is a spy and assassin who was trained at the Red Room by the same spymasters who trained Natasha Romanoff. After the death of her trainer, Pyotr Vasilievich Starkovsky, she is activated as the new Black Widow and she apprehends and eliminates his killer, unaware that both his murder and the investigation were part of a ploy to get Belova to assert herself as the new Black Widow. Natasha refers to Yelena as little one and rooskaya, meaning Russian, Natasha later subjects Yelena to cruel manipulation in order to shatter her illusions about the Black Widow title and teach her the reality of the espionage industry. Belova eventually retires to Cuba, where she becomes a successful businesswoman and she is lured back, however, by the espionage agency S. H. I. E. L. D. and becomes involved in the agencys mining of vibranium in the Antarctic Savage Land. Shortly afterward, she survives an attack by Sauron, receiving severe burns and being subsequently approached with an offer for revenge against S. H. I. E. L. D. Belova is genetically altered by the terrorist organization HYDRA, as she had suffered debilitating and disfiguring injuries after her last encounter with the New Avengers in the Savage Land, HYDRA recruited her with the prospect of revenge and after hiring the services of A. I. M. Transferred her mind into a new Super-Adaptoid body and this body appeared as Belova had originally until it began to absorb powers, at which time it changed as the original did, though now yellow in color. Now equipped with the ability to copy all of the New Avengers powers, when she is defeated, HYDRA disables her using a remote self-destruct mechanism they had implanted in her, rather than let her reveal intelligence to the New Avengers. She has returned working with a group, the Vanguard. During the Dark Reign storyline, Quasimodo researched Yelena Belova for Norman Osborn, Yelena Belova appeared to join Norman Osborns Thunderbolts. However it was revealed to be actually Natasha Romanova in disguise. She believed she was disguised as Belova on Furys behalf, planted for Osborn to find, however, Osborn revealed to her that he had tricked her into taking on Belovas appearance in order to get her to do his dirty work. After her escape from the Thunderbolts, Osborn then revealed an apparent Yelena Belova in stasis to Scourge and warned him that she could be his replacement on the team. The real Yelena is later freed from stasis by members of A. I. M. who install her on the High Council of A. I. M. as the Minister of State in Bagalia, Yelena Belova is in peak athletic condition

20.
Military tactics
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Military tactics are the science and art of organizing a military force, and the techniques for combining and using weapons and military units to engage and defeat an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology have been reflected in changes to military tactics, in contemporary military science, tactics are the lowest of three planning levels, strategic, operational, and tactical. The highest level of planning is strategy, how force is translated into political objectives by bridging the means, the intermediate level, operational, the conversion of strategy into tactics, deals with formations of units. Military tactics answer the questions of how best to deploy and employ forces on a small scale, some practices have not changed since the dawn of warfare, assault, ambushes, skirmishing, turning flanks, reconnaissance, creating and using obstacles and defenses, etc. Using ground to best advantage has not changed much either, heights, rivers, swamps, passes, choke points, and natural cover, can all be used in multiple ways. Before the nineteenth century, many tactics were confined to battlefield concerns. Nowadays, specialized tactics exist for many situations, for example for securing a room in a building, technological changes can render existing tactics obsolete, and sociological changes can shift the goals and methods of warfare, requiring new tactics. Tactics define how soldiers are armed and trained, each – constrained by his weaponry, logistics and social conditioning – would use a battlefield differently, but would usually seek the same outcomes from their use of tactics. The First World War forced great changes in tactics as advances in technology rendered prior tactics useless, list of military tactics Combat arms Johnson, Rob, Michael Whitby, John France. How to win on the battlefield,25 key tactics to outwit, outflank, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Muhm, Gerhard. German Tactics in the Italian Campaign, Gerhard Muhm, La Tattica nella campagna ass d’Italia, in LINEA GOTICA AVAMPOSTO DEI BALCANI, Amedeo Montemaggi - Edizioni Civitas, Roma 1993. Contemporary Marine tactics for war fighting Napoleons tactics and strategy Small Unit Actions during German Campaign in Russia

21.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi

22.
Romanization of Russian
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Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways

Romanization of Russian
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Sergei Gonchar (Cyrillic: Сергей Гончар), an NHL and international ice hockey player, wearing a sweater with Roman characters
Romanization of Russian
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A street sign in Russia with the name of the street shown in Cyrillic and Latin characters

23.
Superhero
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A female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine. Fiction centered on characters, especially in American comic books since the 1930s, is known as superhero fiction. By most definitions, characters do not require actual supernatural or superhuman powers or phenomena to be deemed superheroes, some superheroes use their powers to counter daily crime while also combating threats against humanity from supervillains, who are their criminal counterparts. Often at least one of these supervillains will be the superheros archenemy, some long-running superheroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Spider-Man have a rogues gallery of many villains. The word superhero dates to at least 1917, antecedents of the archetype include such folkloric heroes as Robin Hood, who adventured in distinctive clothing. The 1903 play The Scarlet Pimpernel and its spinoffs popularized the idea of a masked avenger, during the 1940s there were many superheroes, and only a few of these were female. The Flash, Green Lantern and Blue Beetle debuted in this era, most of the other female costumed crime-fighters during this era lacked superpowers. The most iconic comic book superheroine, who debuted during the Golden Age, is Wonder Woman, inspired by the Amazons of Greek mythology, she was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston, with help and inspiration from his wife Elizabeth and their mutual lover Olive Byrne. Wonder Womans first appearance was in All Star Comics #8, published by All-American Publications, in 1952, Osamu Tezukas manga Tetsuwan Atom was published. The series focused upon a robot boy built by a scientist to replace his deceased son, the 1950s saw the Silver Age of Comics. During this era DC introduced the likes of Batwoman in 1956, Supergirl, Miss Arrowette,1958 saw the debut of superhero Moonlight Mask on Japanese television. In 1963, Astro Boy was adapted into a highly influential anime television series, Phantom Agents in 1964 focused on ninjas working for the Japanese government and would be the foundation for Sentai-type series. Another important event was the debut of Mazinger Z by Go Nagai, Go Nagai also wrote the manga Cutey Honey in 1973, although the Magical Girl genre already existed, Nagais manga introduced Transformation sequences that would become a staple of Magical Girl media. The dark Skull Man manga would later get a television adaptation, the protagonist was redesigned resemble a grasshopper, becoming the renowned first masked hero of the Kamen Rider series. Kamen Rider is a motorcycle riding hero in an insect-like costume, both major publishers began introducing new superheroines with a more distinct feminist theme as part of their origin stories or character development. Examples include Big Barda, Power Girl, and the Huntress by DC comics, and from Marvel, the second Black Widow, Shanna the She-Devil, and The Cat. In 1975 Shotaro Ishinomoris Himitsu Sentai Gorenger debuted on what is now TV Asahi, it brought the concepts of multi-colored teams, in 1978, Toei adapted Spider-Man into a live-action series. In subsequent decades, popular characters like Dazzler, She-Hulk, Elektra, Catwoman, Witchblade, Spider-Girl, Batgirl, volume 4 of the X-Men comic book series featured an all-female team as part of the Marvel NOW. branding initiative in 2013

24.
American comic book
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An American comic book is a thin periodical, typically 32-pages, containing primarily comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics and this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the book industry rapidly expanded, and genres such as horror, crime. The 1950s saw a decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a revival. Since the later 20th century, comic books have gained note as collectable items, Comic shops cater to fans, and particularly valuable issues have fetched in excess of a million dollars. Systems of grading comic books have emerged with plastic sleeves and cardboard backing available to maintain the condition of comic books, standard comics are 6.625 inches ×10.25 inches and about 32 pages long. While comics can be the work of a creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a writer and artist, or there may be separate artists for the characters. The process begins with the coming up with an idea or concept, then working it into a plot and story. After the art production, letters are placed on the page, the creative team, the writers and artists, may work with a comic book publisher for help with marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A distributor like Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest in the U. S. helps to distribute the product to retailers. Another part of the involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator. Fan art and letters to the editor were printed in the back of the book until the early 21st century. Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independently-produced comics, the development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U. S, the Yellow Kid in McFaddens Flats, in 1897. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches. The neologism comic book appears on the back cover, despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Companys Comic Monthly, did not appear until 1922

25.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians

26.
Espionage
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Espionage is the obtaining of information considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage can be committed by an individual or a spy ring, in the service of a government or a company, the practice is inherently clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome and in many cases illegal and punishable by law. Espionage is a subset of intelligence gathering, which includes espionage as well as information gathering from public sources, Espionage is often part of an institutional effort by a government or commercial concern. However, the term is associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage, one of the most effective ways to gather data and information about the enemy is by infiltrating the enemys ranks. This is the job of the spy, Spies can bring back all sorts of information concerning the size and strength of enemy forces. They can also find dissidents within the forces and influence them to defect. In times of crisis, spies can also be used to steal technology, counterintelligence operatives can feed false information to enemy spies, protecting important domestic secrets, and preventing attempts at subversion. Nearly every country has strict laws concerning espionage, and the penalty for being caught is often severe. However, the benefits that can be gained through espionage are generally great enough that most governments, events involving espionage are well documented throughout history. The Old Testament of the Christian Bible, which is based primarily on the Hebrew Bible, speaks about Joshua and Caleb, the ancient writings of Chinese and Indian military strategists such as Sun-Tzu and Chanakya contain information on deception and subversion. Chanakyas student Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire in India, made use of assassinations, spies and secret agents, the ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence, and the Hebrews used spies as well, as in the story of Rahab. Spies were also prevalent in the Greek and Roman empires, during the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongols relied heavily on espionage in their conquests in Asia and Europe. Feudal Japan often used ninjas to gather intelligence, aztecs used Pochtecas, people in charge of commerce, as spies and diplomats, and had diplomatic immunity. Many modern espionage methods were established by Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan England, in 1585, Mary, Queen of Scots was placed in the custody of Sir Amias Paulet, who was instructed to open and read all of Marys clandestine correspondence. In a successful attempt to expose her, Walsingham arranged a single exception, Mary was misled into thinking these secret letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsinghams agents. He succeeded in intercepting letters that indicated a conspiracy to displace Elizabeth I with Mary, in foreign intelligence, Walsinghams extensive network of intelligencers, who passed on general news as well as secrets, spanned Europe and the Mediterranean. While foreign intelligence was a part of the principal secretarys activities, Walsingham brought to it flair and ambition

27.
Iron Man
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Iron Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, the character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39. He instead creates a suit of armor to save his life. Later, Stark augments his suit with weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company and he uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man, while at first concealing his true identity. Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology, subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War themes to contemporary concerns, such as corporate crime and terrorism. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films, the character is portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the live action film Iron Man, which was a critical and box office success. Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGNs Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011, in 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the quintessential capitalist, a character that would go against the spirit of the times, Lee said, I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War, the readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military. So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies man, writer Gerry Conway said, Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just cant be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, but theres a metaphor going on there. And thats, I think, what made that character interesting, Lee based this playboys looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies man, without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes, Lee said. While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the issue to Lieber. The art was split between Kirby and Heck and he designed the costume, Heck said of Kirby, because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first, but I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts. In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had a model for Tony Stark. Heck replied No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the kind of characters that Alex Toth liked

28.
Defection
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In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to one is bound by some tie. This term is applied, often pejoratively, to anyone who switches loyalty to another religion, sports team, political party. In that sense, the defector is often considered a traitor by their original side, the physical act of defection is usually in a manner which violates the laws of the nation or political entity from which the person is seeking to depart. By contrast, mere changes in citizenship, or working with allied militia, the Berlin Wall and fortifications along the Inner German border were erected by the Communist East German Democratic Republic in 1961 to enforce the policy. When people tried to defect from the GDR they were to be shot on sight, several hundred people were killed along the border in their Republikflucht attempt. Official crossings did exist, but permissions to leave temporarily or permanently were seldom granted, on the other hand, the GDR citizenship of some inconvenient East Germans was revoked, and they had to leave their home on short notice against their will. Others, like singer Wolf Biermann, were prohibited from returning to the GDR, during the Cold War, the many people illegally emigrating from the Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc to the West were called defectors. Westerners defected to the Eastern Bloc as well, often to avoid prosecution as spies, when the individual leaves his country and provides information to a foreign intelligence service, they are a HUMINT source defector. In some cases, defectors remain in the country or with the entity they were against. Intelligence services are concerned when debriefing defectors with the possibility of a fake defection. Alexander Mogilny, Soviet Hockey Player, who defected to the United States in 1988 and he was the first Soviet player to defect to play in the NHL. Aroldis Chapman, Cuban baseball pitcher, who defected to Andorra in 2009 before signing a Major League Baseball contract in 2010, josé Fernández, Cuban baseball player, who defected to the United States in 2008. Orlando Hernandez, Cuban baseball pitcher, who defected to the United States in 1997, arturo Sandoval, Cuban trumpeter, pianist, and composer, who defected to the United States in 1990. Nadia Comăneci, Romanian Olympic Gymnast, who defected to the United States in 1989, béla Károlyi and his wife Márta Károlyi, Romanian gymnastics coaches, who defected to the United States in 1981. Paquito DRivera, Cuban saxophonist and clarinetist, who defected to the United States in 1980, mikhail Baryshnikov, Soviet dancer, who defected to Canada in 1974, while in Toronto, touring with the Kirov Ballet. He later moved to the United States, natalia Makarova, Soviet dancer, who defected while in London in 1970. Rudolf Nureyev, Soviet dancer, who defected while in Paris touring with the Kirov Ballet in 1961, george Balanchine, Russian choreographer, who defected to the Weimar Republic in 1924

29.
Scarlett Johansson
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Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer. She made her debut in the fantasy comedy North. Johansson subsequently starred in Manny & Lo, and garnered acclaim and prominence with roles in The Horse Whisperer. She shifted to roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation. Since 2010, Johansson has also portrayed the Marvel Comics character Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the 2010 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge. As a singer, Johansson has released two albums, Anywhere I Lay My Head and Break Up, Johansson is considered one of Hollywoods modern sex symbols, and has frequently appeared in published lists of the sexiest women in the world. As of February 2017, she is the actress of all time in North America. In 2016, she added another $1.2 billion to that box office record and her father, Karsten Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx, Sloans ancestors were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Minsk in the Russian Empire. Scarlett Johansson has a sister, Vanessa, also an actress, an older brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter. She holds both United States and Danish passports and citizenship, Johansson grew up in a household with little money, and with a mother who was a film buff. She and her brother attended PS41 elementary school in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Johansson began her training by attending and graduating from Professional Childrens School in Manhattan in 2002. Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions and she would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her debut at the age of 9, as John Ritters daughter in the fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the mystery thriller Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo. Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, after appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film, in 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig and in the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasnt There

30.
Iron Man 2
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Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson. Following the successful release of Iron Man in May 2008, Marvel Studios announced, in July of that same year Theroux was hired to write the script, and Favreau was signed to return and direct. Downey, Paltrow and Jackson were set to reprise their roles from Iron Man, in the early months of 2009, Rourke, Rockwell and Johansson filled out the supporting cast, and filming took place from April to July of that year. Like its predecessor the film was mostly in California, except for a key sequence in Monaco. Iron Man 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on April 26,2010, the film received generally positive reviews and was commercially successful, grossing over $623.9 million at the worldwide box office. The DVD and Blu-ray were released on September 28,2010, the third installment of the Iron Man series, Iron Man 3, was released on May 3,2013. In Russia, the media covers Tony Starks disclosure of his identity as Iron Man, Ivan Vanko, whose father Anton Vanko has just died, sees this and begins building a miniature arc reactor similar to Starks. Six months later, Stark is a superstar and uses his Iron Man suit for peaceful means and he reinstitutes the Stark Expo to continue his father Howards legacy. The palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps Stark alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, Stark competes in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, where he is attacked in the middle of the race by Vanko who wields electrified whips. Stark dons his Mark V armor and defeats Vanko, but the suit is severely damaged, Vanko explains his intention was to prove to the world that Iron Man is not invincible. Impressed by Vankos performance, Starks rival, Justin Hammer, fakes Vankos death while breaking him out of prison, during what he believes is his final birthday party, Stark gets drunk while wearing the Mark IV suit. Disgusted, U. S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes dons Starks Mark II prototype armor, the fight ends in a stalemate, so Rhodes confiscates the Mark II for the U. S. Air Force. Approaches Stark, revealing Rushman to be Agent Natasha Romanoff and that Howard Stark was a S. H. I. E. L. D. Fury explains that Vankos father jointly invented the arc reactor with Stark, the Soviets sent Anton to the gulag. Fury gives Stark some of his fathers old material, a message in the diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo proves to be a diagram of the structure of a new element. With the aid of his computer J. A. R. V. I. S, when he learns Vanko is still alive, he places the new element in his arc reactor and ends his palladium dependency. At the Expo, Hammer unveils Vankos armored drones, led by Rhodes in a weaponized version of the Mark II armor. Stark arrives in the Mark VI armor to warn Rhodes, Hammer is arrested while Romanoff and Starks bodyguard Happy Hogan go after Vanko at Hammers factory

31.
The Avengers (2012 film)
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In the film, Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S. H. I. E. L. D. Recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thors brother Loki from subjugating Earth, the films development began when Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch in April 2005. After the success of the film Iron Man in May 2008, with the signing of Johansson in March 2009, the film was pushed back for a 2012 release. Whedon was brought on board in April 2010 and rewrote the screenplay by Zak Penn. Production began in April 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in August, the film was converted to 3D in post-production. The Avengers premiered on April 11,2012, at Hollywoods El Capitan Theatre and was released theatrically in the United States on May 4,2012. The film received reviews from critics, as well as numerous awards and nominations including Academy Award. It has set or tied numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend in North America, the Avengers grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, and became the third-highest-grossing film during its theatrical run—as well as the first Marvel production to generate $1 billion in ticket sales. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on September 25,2012, the Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract,2 a powerful source of unknown potential. Agent Phil Coulson explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy, the Tesseract suddenly activates and opens a wormhole, allowing Loki to reach Earth. Loki takes the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig, in response to the attack, Fury reactivates the Avengers Initiative. Agent Natasha Romanoff is sent to Calcutta to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner to trace the Tesseract through its gamma radiation emissions, Coulson visits Tony Stark to have him review Selvigs research, and Fury approaches Steve Rogers with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract. While Loki is being escorted to S. H. I. E. L. D, Thor, his adoptive brother, arrives and frees him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. After a confrontation with Stark and Rogers, Thor agrees to take Loki to S. H. I. E. L. D. s flying aircraft carrier, there Loki is imprisoned while Banner and Stark attempt to locate the Tesseract. The Avengers become divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S. H. I. E. L. D, plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons as a deterrent against hostile extraterrestrials. As the group argues, Barton and Lokis other possessed agents attack the Helicarrier, disabling its engines in flight, Stark and Rogers try to restart the damaged engine, and Thor attempts to stop the Hulks rampage. Romanoff fights Barton, and knocks him unconscious, breaking Lokis mind control, Loki escapes after killing Coulson and ejecting Thor from the airship, while the Hulk falls to the ground after attacking a S. H. I. E. L. D

32.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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It is the sequel to 2011s Captain America, The First Avenger and the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, with a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, who had also written The First Avenger. In Captain America, The Winter Soldier, Captain America, Black Widow, while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier. A major influence in The Winter Soldier was conspiracy fiction from the 1970s such as Three Days of the Condor, the script was written in 2011, with the Russo brothers entering negotiations to direct in June 2012 and casting beginning the following month. Principal photography commenced in April 2013 in Los Angeles, California before moving to Washington, D. C. and Cleveland, Ohio. While the directors aimed for realism, with focus on practical effects. Captain America, The Winter Soldier premiered in Los Angeles on March 13,2014 and it was released internationally on March 26,2014, and in North America on April 4,2014, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714 million worldwide and it also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. A sequel titled Captain America, Civil War also directed by the Russo brothers was released on May 6,2016. Two years after the Battle of New York, Steve Rogers works in Washington D. C. for the espionage agency S. H. I. E. L. D, under Director Nick Fury, while adjusting to contemporary society. Rogers and Agent Natasha Romanoff are sent with S. H. I. E. L. D. s counter-terrorism S. T. R. I. K. E. Team, led by Agent Rumlow, to free hostages aboard a S. H. I. E. L. D, vessel from Georges Batroc and his mercenaries. Mid-mission, Rogers discovers Romanoff has another agenda, to data from the ships computers for Fury. Unable to decrypt the data recovered by Romanoff, Fury becomes suspicious about Insight, official Alexander Pierce to delay the project. On his way to rendezvous with Maria Hill, Fury is ambushed by assailants led by an assassin called the Winter Soldier. Fury escapes to Rogers apartment, and warns Rogers that S. H. I. E. L. D. is compromised, after handing Rogers a flash drive containing data from the ship, Fury is gunned down by the Winter Soldier. Fury is pronounced dead during surgery, and Hill recovers the body, the next day, Pierce summons Rogers to the Triskelion. When Rogers withholds Furys information, Pierce brands him a fugitive, using data in the flash drive they discover a secret S. H. I. E. L. D

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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Theatrical release poster
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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The cast and crew of Captain America: The Winter Soldier at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International. (L-R: producer Kevin Feige, VanCamp, Mackie, Smulders, Jackson, Johansson, directors Anthony and Joe Russo, Evans, Grillo, Stan)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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Film set for Captain America: The Winter Soldier on the National Mall.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter before (top) and after (bottom) she was digitally altered to appear older in the film.

33.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
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Avengers, Age of Ultron is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012s The Avengers and the film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. Jackson, in Avengers, Age of Ultron, the Avengers fight Ultron, an artificial intelligence obsessed with causing human extinction. The sequel was announced in May 2012, after the release of The Avengers. Whedon, the director of the first film, was back on board in August. By April 2013, Whedon had completed a draft of the script, second unit filming began in February 2014 in South Africa with principal photography taking place between March and August 2014. The film was shot at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England, with additional footage filmed in Italy, South Korea, Bangladesh, New York City. While in post production, the film was converted to 3D, Avengers, Age of Ultron premiered in Los Angeles on April 13,2015, and was released on May 1,2015, in North America, in 3D and IMAX 3D. The film received reviews from critics and grossed over $1.4 billion worldwide, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film in history. A sequel, Avengers, Infinity War, is scheduled to be released on May 4,2018, Stark and Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the scepters gem, and secretly use it to complete Starks Ultron global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient Ultron, believing he must eradicate humanity to save Earth, J. A. R. V. I. S. and attacks the Avengers at their headquarters. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron uses the resources in Struckers Sokovia base to upgrade his rudimentary body and build an army of robot drones. Having killed Strucker, he recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark responsible for their parents deaths by his weapons, and go to the base of arms dealer Ulysses Klaue to obtain Wakandan vibranium. Thor departs to consult with Dr. Erik Selvig on the meaning of the future he saw in his hallucination, while Romanoff. However, Nick Fury arrives and encourages the team to form a plan to stop Ultron, in Seoul, Ultron forces the teams friend Dr. Helen Cho to use her synthetic-tissue technology, together with vibranium and the scepters gem, to perfect a new body for him. As Ultron uploads himself into the body, Wanda is able to read his mind, discovering his plan for human extinction, Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff. The Avengers fight amongst themselves when Stark secretly uploads J. A. R. V. I. S, – who is still operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet – into the synthetic body. Thor returns to help activate the body, explaining that the gem on its brow – one of the six Infinity Stones, Banner rescues Romanoff, who awakens the Hulk for the battle

34.
Captain America: Civil War
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Captain America, Civil War is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2011s Captain America, The First Avenger and 2014s Captain America, The Winter Soldier, and the thirteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, with a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, in Captain America, Civil War, disagreement over international oversight of the Avengers fractures them into opposing factions—one led by Steve Rogers and the other by Tony Stark. Following positive reactions to test screenings of The Winter Soldier, the Russo brothers were brought back to direct in early 2014, the films title and premise were revealed in October 2014, along with Downeys casting, additional cast members joined in the following months. Visual effects were provided by nearly 20 different studios during the post-production process, Captain America, Civil War held its world premiere in Los Angeles on April 12,2016, and was released in the United States on May 6,2016, in 3D and IMAX 3D. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the film of 2016. In 1991, the brainwashed super-soldier James Bucky Barnes is dispatched from a Hydra base in Siberia to intercept an automobile carrying a case of super-soldier serum, Rumlow blows himself up, hoping to kill Rogers. When Maximoff throws the explosion into the sky with telekinesis, it damages a nearby building, killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers. U. S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross informs the Avengers that the United Nations is preparing to pass the Sokovia Accords, which will establish a UN panel to oversee and control the team. The Avengers are divided, Tony Stark supports oversight because of his role in Ultrons creation and Sokovias devastation, at a conference in Vienna where the Accords are to be ratified, a bomb kills King TChaka of Wakanda. Security footage indicates the bomber is Barnes, whom TChakas son, TChalla, informed by Sharon Carter of Barnes whereabouts and the authorities intentions to kill him, Rogers tries to bring in Barnes—his childhood friend and war comrade—himself. Rogers and Wilson track Barnes to Bucharest and attempt to protect him from TChalla and the authorities, Helmut Zemo tracks down and kills Barnes old Hydra handler, stealing a book containing the trigger words that activate Barnes brainwashing. Impersonating a psychiatrist sent to interview Barnes, Zemo recites the words to make Barnes obey him and he questions Barnes, then sends him on a rampage to cover his own escape. Rogers stops Barnes and sneaks him away, unwilling to wait for authorization to apprehend Zemo, Rogers and Wilson go rogue, and recruit Maximoff, Clint Barton, and Scott Lang to their cause. With Rosss permission, Stark assembles a team composed of Romanoff, TChalla, James Rhodes, Vision, Starks team intercepts Rogers group at Leipzig/Halle Airport, where they fight until Romanoff allows Rogers and Barnes to escape. The rest of Rogers team is captured and detained at the Raft prison, while Rhodes is partially paralyzed after being shot down by Vision. Stark discovers evidence that Barnes was framed by Zemo and convinces Wilson to give him Rogers destination, without informing Ross, Stark goes to the Siberian Hydra facility and strikes a truce with Rogers and Barnes, unaware they were secretly followed by TChalla. They find that the other super-soldiers have been killed by Zemo, enraged that Rogers kept this from him, Stark turns on them both, dismembering Barnes robotic arm

Captain America: Civil War
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Film set for Captain America: Civil War in Downtown Atlanta.
Captain America: Civil War
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Official logo

35.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
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The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, television series and digital series. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, clark Gregg has appeared the most in the franchise, portraying Phil Coulson, a character original to the MCU. The first film released in the MCU was Iron Man, which began the first phase of films culminating in the crossover film Marvels The Avengers, Phase Two began with Iron Man 3, and concluded with Ant-Man. The films are currently in Phase Three, which began with the release of Captain America, Marvel Television expanded the universe further, first to network television with Marvels Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. Marvel Television has also produced the digital series Marvels Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D, slingshot, which is a supplement to Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. Soundtrack albums have been released for all of the films, along many of television series. It has inspired film and television studios with comic book character adaptation rights to attempt to create similar shared universes. By 2005, Marvel Entertainment began planning to produce its own films. Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, Marvel made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution. Avi Arad, head of Marvels film division, was pleased with Sam Raimis Spider-Man films at Sony, as a result, they decided to form Marvel Studios, Hollywoods first major independent movie studio since DreamWorks. Feige, a self-professed fanboy, envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators Stan Lee, to raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvels plan was to release films for their main characters. Arad, who doubted the strategy yet insisted that it was his reputation that helped secure the initial financing, in 2007, at 33 years old, Feige was named studio chief. Feige initially referred to the narrative continuity of these films as the Marvel Cinema Universe. Marvel has designated the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth-199999 within the continuity of the companys multiverse, while not always the case, as evident by the 2013 releases of Iron Man 3 and Thor, The Dark World, he said it is certainly something to aim for. Feige expanded on this in July 2014, saying, I dont know that well keep to every year, wed rather find a way to keep that going. After the titles were revealed in October 2014, Feige said, which made us comfortable for the first time. To increase to three films a year instead of just two, without changing our methods, just like comic readers have been doing for decades and decades

Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Kevin Feige was an early visionary for the franchise, realizing a shared media universe could be created with properties Marvel owned.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Marvel Cinematic Universe intertitle from Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe (2014).
Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Joss Whedon was a large contributor to Phase Two, offering creative insight to all the films leading up to Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as launching the first live-action television series for the universe, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

36.
Jack Kirby
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Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer, and editor, widely regarded as one of the mediums major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. Kirby grew up in New York City, and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and he entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, during the 1940s, Kirby, generally teamed with Simon, created numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics. After serving in World War II, Kirby produced work for a number of publishers, including DC, Harvey Comics, at Crestwood Publications he and Simon created the genre of romance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Ultimately, Kirby found himself at Timelys 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, there, in the 1960s, Kirby and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created many of the companys major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. The Lee-Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, at DC, Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth Worlds New Gods have continued as a significant part of the DC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation, Kirby was married to Rosalind Roz Goldstein in 1942. They had four children, and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, the Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor. Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28,1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City and his parents, Rose and Benjamin Kurtzberg, were Austrian Jewish immigrants, and his father earned a living as a garment factory worker. In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood and he liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art. He was rejected by the Educational Alliance because he drew too fast with charcoal and he later found an outlet for his skills by drawing cartoons for the newspaper of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a miniature city on East 3rd Street where street kids ran their own government. At age 14, Kirby enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, I wasnt the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted people who would work on something forever, I didnt want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done, Kirby joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First. He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the animation company Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener on Popeye cartoons. I went from Lincoln to Fleischer, he recalled, from Fleischer I had to get out in a hurry because I couldnt take that kind of thing, describing it as a factory in a sense, like my fathers factory. Around that time, the American comic book industry was booming, Kirby began writing and drawing for the comic-book packager Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers

37.
The Avengers (comic)
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The Avengers is the name of several comic book titles featuring the team the Avengers and published by Marvel Comics, beginning with the original The Avengers comic book series which debuted in 1963. In 1960, DC Comics launched a book series featuring a team of superheroes called the Justice League. Impressed by that books strong sales, Martin Goodman, the owner of Marvel Comics predecessor Timely Comics, Lee recounts in Origins of Marvel Comics, Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes, if the Justice League is selling, spoke he, why dont we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes. Much like the Justice League, the Avengers were an assemblage of pre-existing superhero characters created by Lee, Kirby did the artwork for the first eight issues only, in addition to doing the layouts for issue #16. Marvel filed for a trademark for The Avengers in 1967 and the United States Patent, between 1996 and 2004, Marvel relaunched the primary Avengers title three times. In 1996, the Heroes Reborn line, in which Marvel contracted outside companies to produce four titles and it took place in an alternate universe, with a revamped history unrelated to mainstream Marvel continuity. The Avengers vol.2 was written by Rob Liefeld and penciled by Jim Valentino, the final issue, which featured a crossover with the other Heroes Reborn titles, returned the characters to the main Marvel Universe. The Avengers vol.3 relaunched and ran for 84 issues from February 1998 to August 2004, Avengers vol.4 debuted in July 2010 and ran until January 2013. Vol.5 was launched in February 2013, after Secret Wars, a new Avengers team debuted, dubbed the All-New, All-Different Avengers, starting with a Free Comic Book Day preview. The roster changed almost immediately after the first issue, at the beginning of the issue, Ant-Man became Giant-Man, and at the end of the issue. Issue #4 brought the titles first major milestone, the revival, the creative team of writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema introduced new characters such as Arkon in issue #75 and Red Wolf in #80. Novelist Harlan Ellison plotted two stories for the series, the first was published in issue #88 and the second in #101. Writer Steve Englehart introduced Mantis, who joined the team along with the reformed Swordsman, during the summer of 1973, Englehart and artists Bob Brown and Sal Buscema produced The Avengers-Defenders Clash storyline which crossed over between the two team titles. George Pérez became the titles artist with issue #141 which saw the start of a story featuring the Squadron Supreme. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Engleharts run on The Avengers eighth on its list of the Top 10 1970s Marvels, shooter introduced the character of Henry Peter Gyrich, the Avengers liaison to the United States National Security Council. The true origins of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were revealed in a story that ran in issues #185-187. Stern developed several major storylines, such as Ultimate Vision, the formation of the West Coast Avengers, rogue, who would later become a member of the X-Men, was introduced in The Avengers Annual #10 by writer Chris Claremont and artist Michael Golden

38.
The Amazing Spider-Man
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The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. In 2003 the series reverted to the order of the first volume. The title has occasionally been published biweekly, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010, a film named after the comic was released July 3,2012. After DC Comics relaunch of Action Comics and Detective Comics with new #1 issues in 2011, the title ended its 50-year run as a continuously published comic with issue #700 in December 2012. It was replaced by The Superior Spider-Man as part of the Marvel NOW. relaunch of Marvels comic lines, the title was relaunched in April 2014, starting fresh from issue #1, after the Goblin Nation story arc published in The Superior Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up. In late 2015, The Amazing Spider-Man was relaunched again with a new volume with issue #1 following the 2015 Secret Wars event, the character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Steve Ditko, and the pair produced 38 issues from March 1963 to July 1966. Ditko left after the 38th issue, while Lee remained as writer until issue 100, since then, many writers and artists have taken over the monthly comic through the years, chronicling the adventures of Marvels most identifiable hero. Most of the characters and villains of the Spider-Man saga have been introduced in Amazing. Due to strong sales on the characters first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, the initial years of the series, under Lee and Ditko, chronicled Spider-Mans nascent career with his civilian life as hard-luck yet perpetually good-humored teenager Peter Parker. Peter balanced his career as Spider-Man with his job as a photographer for The Daily Bugle under the bombastic editor-publisher J. Jonah Jameson to support himself. By focusing on Parkers everyday problems, Lee and Ditko created a groundbreakingly flawed, self-doubting superhero, most of Spider-Mans key villains and supporting characters were introduced during this time. Issue #1 featured the first appearances of J. Jonah Jameson and his astronaut son John Jameson, and it included the heros first encounter with the superhero team the Fantastic Four. Issue #2 featured the first appearance of the Vulture and the beginning of Parkers freelance photography career at the newspaper The Daily Bugle, the Molten Man was introduced in #28 which also featured Parkers graduation from high school. Peter began attending Empire State University in #31, the issue featured the first appearances of friends and classmates Gwen Stacy. Harrys father, Norman Osborn first appeared in #23 as a member of Jamesons country club but is not named nor revealed as Harrys father until #37. One of the most celebrated issues of the Lee-Ditko run is #33, which features the dramatic scene of Spider-Man, through force of will and thoughts of family, escaping from being pinned by heavy machinery. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that Steve Ditko squeezes every ounce of anguish out of Spider-Mans predicament, complete with visions of the uncle he failed and the aunt he has sworn to save. Peter David observed that After his origin, this sequence from Amazing Spider-Man #33 is perhaps the best-loved sequence from the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era

39.
Amazing Adventures
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Amazing Adventures is the name of several anthology comic book series, all but one published by Marvel Comics. The earliest Marvel series of that name introduced the companys first superhero of the late-1950s to early-1960s period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books and that same series also included the first comic book to be labeled Marvel Comics. The first series titled Amazing Adventures was a 1950s science fiction anthology produced by Ziff-Davis and it ran for six issues, beginning c. With the first two issues being undated, subsequent issues were dated June, August, and November 1951, and Fall 1952. Its artists included Murphy Anderson, Bernard Krigstein, and Don Perlin, Marvels first series of this title ran six issues, premiering with June 1961 cover-date. It featured primarily science fiction and drive-in movie-style monster stories, virtually all drawn by either Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko and its first issue introduced the supernatural monster-hunter Doctor Droom, Marvels first Silver Age of Comic Books superhero. Droom had powers of telepathy and hypnotic suggestion taught him by a Tibetan lama who had requested that someone travel from the U. S. to give him medical attention. Doctor Droom vanished into obscurity for years when the comic was retitled and reformatted as Amazing Adult Fantasy from issues #7–14 and he resurfaced in the 1970s as Doctor Druid, having been renamed to avoid confusion with Doctor Doom. The series was retitled once more for its issue, published as Amazing Fantasy #15. Marvels next Amazing Adventures was a title featuring the Inhumans. The Widow was dropped after vol,2, #8, and full-length Inhumans stories ran for two issues before that feature, too, was dropped. Vol.2, #11 introduced solo stories of erstwhile X-Men member the Beast, the initial story was by writer Gerry Conway, penciler Tom Sutton, and inker Syd Shores. Steve Englehart became the writer with issue #12 and added Patsy Walker and her then-husband, Buzz Baxter. In the fall of 1972, writers Englehart, Conway and Len Wein crafted a metafictional unofficial crossover spanning titles from major comics companies. Each comic featured Englehart, Conway, and Wein, as well as Weins first wife Glynis, interacting with Marvel or DC characters at the Rutland Halloween Parade in Rutland, Vermont. Beginning in Amazing Adventures vol.2 #16, the story continued in Justice League of America #103, and concluded in Thor #207. As Englehart explained in 2010, It certainly seemed like a concept and we knew that we had to be subtle and each story had to stand on its own. The Beasts strip ended with vol, created by co-plotters Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, scripter Conway, and pencilers Adams and Howard Chaykin, it was taken over by writer Don McGregor for an acclaimed run from vol

40.
Inhumans
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The Inhumans are a fictional race of superhumans appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four #45, though members Medusa and their home, the city of Attilan, was first mentioned years earlier, in a Tuk the Caveboy story written and drawn by Jack Kirby that appeared in Captain America Comics #1. The city was described as the home of a race that was advanced when human beings were still in the Stone Age. The Inhuman Royal Family had been adapted to numerous Marvel animated series, Inhuman characters were introduced in live-action in the second season of Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. While the Inhuman Royal Family will be featured in the TV series Inhumans, the Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four #45. The Inhumans appeared as a feature in Thor #146 to #152. They then fought the Silver Surfer in Silver Surfer #18 and starred in Amazing Adventures #1 to #10, the characters received their own self-titled series in October 1975. This ran for 12 issues and ended in August 1977, an Inhumans limited series by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee ran for 12 issues from November 1998-October 1999. A four-issue limited series by writers Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín, the fourth volume concentrated largely on new characters within the Inhumans society. In 2007, the Inhumans featured in the Silent War limited series by writer David Hine, and artist Frazer Irving. The 2013 event, Infinity, led to changes in status quo for the group, with many new Inhumans, or NuHumans. Writer Charles Soule became the writer of the Inhuman franchise, starting with the Inhuman series. The NuHuman Kamala Khan also becomes the lead of her own title, following the Secret Wars event, the franchise expands to two ongoing titles, Uncanny Inhumans and All-New Inhumans, and an additional solo title, Karnak. At the beginning of the Kree-Skrull War, millions of years ago in Earth time, the alien Kree established a station on the planet Uranus, a strategic position between the Kree and Skrull empires. Through their work at this station, they discovered that sentient life on nearby Earth had genetic potential invested in it by the alien Celestials, intrigued, the Kree began to experiment on Earths then-primitive Homo sapiens to produce the genetically advanced Inhuman race. Their goal was apparently twofold—to investigate possible ways of circumventing their own evolutionary stagnation and their test subjects, the Inhumans, went on to form a society of their own, which thrived in seclusion from the rest of humanity and developed advanced technology. Experiments with the mutagenic Terrigen Mist gave them powers, but caused lasting genetic damage. This led to a selective breeding program in an attempt to mitigate the effects of these mutations

41.
Marvel Fanfare
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Marvel Fanfare is the title of two comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Both versions of Marvel Fanfare were anthology, showcase titles featuring a variety of characters from the Marvel universe, Marvel Fanfare featured characters and settings from throughout the Marvel Universe, and included stories of varying lengths by a vast array of different creators. The title was published two months from March 1982 to December 1991 and ran for 60 issues. It was edited throughout its run by Al Milgrom, who wrote and drew an illustrated column in most issues. The series began with a Spider-Man/Angel team-up story by Chris Claremont, other Spider-Man appearance in the title included team-ups with the Scarlet Witch in issue #6 and the Hulk in issue #47. A Silver Surfer story by Steve Englehart and John Buscema that was intended for the characters own series appeared in Marvel Fanfare #51. Marvel Fanfare was envisioned as a showcase of the industrys best talent. Each issue featured 36 pages of material with no [advertisements and it was printed on magazine-style slick paper and it was more than twice as expensive as standard comic books. Editor Milgrom wrote of his experience with the series, Marvel Fanfare Volume Two was published monthly for six issues between 1996 and 1997 and this version of the title was edited by James Felder. Like the first volume the title featured different creative teams in each issue, however, the talent were mostly newcomers, the paper was cheap and it cost half the price of most other comics. The title is notable for featuring the work of writer Joe Kelly. 3 includes Moon Knight stories from Marvel Fanfare #30 and 38-39,528 pages, November 2009, ISBN 978-0-7851-3070-3 Essential Silver Surfer vol.2 at the Comic Book DB

42.
Ralph Macchio (editor)
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Ralph Macchio is an American comic book editor and writer who has held many positions at Marvel Comics, including executive editor. Macchio is commonly associated with Daredevil, the Spider-Man line of comics, Macchio is not related to the actor Ralph Macchio, but is nicknamed Karate Kid after that actors famous role. As a young man, Macchio was a fan and letterhack. His background, however, was in English literature, and he considered teaching as a career, in no hurry to get such a job, Macchio happened to meet Killraven writer Don McGregor at a comic book convention. Knowing Macchio from his letters, McGregor asked Macchio if he wanted a tour of the Marvel offices. During the tour, Macchio was asked by writer Chris Claremont to interview editor-in-chief Roy Thomas for FOOM, Macchio, having nothing else to do after graduate school, agreed. Macchios most consistent early credits were as writer of Marvel Two-in-One, which he co-scripted with Mark Gruenwald from 1978 to 1981, and Thor and he has also written for Marvel Fanfare and X-Men Adventures, and the premiere issue of Transformers, among others. After working as an assistant editor for Warner on Marvels black-and-white magazine line, graduating to full editor in 1981, Macchios first major editing job was Master of Kung Fu, which he helmed from 1982 to 1983. His first line of books was The Saga of Crystar, Dazzler, ROM, U. S.1, during this early period, Macchios assistant editor was Bob Harras, later to become Marvel editor-in-chief. From 1984 through 1995, Macchio was Daredevil editor and he also spent nearly decade-long editing stints on Thor and Captain America, and shorter periods on Avengers and Fantastic Four. He additionally edited movie adaptations, Star-Lord, and the barbarian book Kull the Conqueror, in 1996, Macchio became editor of the Spider-Man line, which he helmed into the early 2000s. Starting in 2000, he edited the Marvel Ultimates line, in 2007, Macchio oversaw the adaptation of Stephen Kings Dark Tower novels into a comic-book series. Macchio retired from Marvel in 2011, Ralph Macchio at the Comic Book DB Marvel Videos, Spider-Man Week in NYC, Ralph Macchio, Marvel. com Sampling of Macchios 1970s fan letters to comic books

43.
Penciller
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A penciller is a collaboration artist who works in creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations, hence the term penciller. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and these artists are concerned with layout to showcase steps in the plot. Beyond this basic description, however, different artists choose to use a variety of different tools. While many artists use traditional wood pencils, others prefer mechanical pencils or drafting leads, still other artists do their initial layouts using a light-blue colored pencil because that color tends to disappear during photocopying. Most US comic book pages are drawn oversized on large sheets of paper, the customary size of comic book pages in the mainstream American comics industry is 11 by 17 inches. The inker usually works directly over the pencil marks, though occasionally pages are inked on translucent paper, such as drafting vellum. The artwork is later reduced in size during the printing process. With the advent of digital illustration programs such as Photoshop, more and more artwork is produced digitally, Jack Kirby From 1949 until his retirement, Jack Kirby worked out of a ten-foot-wide basement studio dubbed The Dungeon by his family. When starting with clean piece of Bristol board, would first draw his lines with a T-square. Arthur Adams Arthur Adams begins drawing thumbnail layouts from the script hes given, the thumbnails range in size from 2 inches x 3 inches to half the size of the printed comic book. When working on the illustration board, he does so on a large drawing board when in his basement studio. After tracing the thumbnails, he will then clarify details with another light-blue pencil, for a large poster image with a multitude of characters, he will go over the figure outlines with a marker in order to emphasize them. He will use photographic reference when appropriate, as when he draws things that he is not accustomed to, because a significant portion of his income is derived from selling his original artwork, he is reluctant to learn how to produce his work digitally. Jim Lee Artist Jim Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work and he uses this lead because it strikes a balance between too hard, and therefore not dark enough on the page, and too soft, and therefore prone to smearing and crumbling. Campbell avoids its closest competitor because he finds it too waxy, campbell has also used HB lead and F lead. He maintains sharpness of the lead with a Berol Turquoise sharpener, changing them every four to six months, campbell uses a combination of Magic Rub erasers, eraser sticks, and since he began to ink his work digitally, a Sakura electric eraser. He often sharpens the eraser to an edge in order to render fine detailed work. Travis Charest Artist Travis Charest uses mainly 2H lead to avoid smearing and he previously illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked the non-photo blue lines printed on them

44.
Force Works
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Force Works was the name of different Marvel Comics superhero teams. The first version of Force Works first appeared in the book series Force Works #1 where they were created by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. The team was formed from the remains of the West Coast Avengers, Force Works maintained a different outlook than the Avengers, trying to preempt natural and man-made disasters. The second version of Force Works was mentioned in Civil War #6, Force Works began shortly after the West Coast Avengers disbanded. The team was composed of Iron Man, U. S. Agent, Spider-Woman, Scarlet Witch. By the end of their first mission, Wonder Man was thought dead at the hands of the invading Kree, Force Works used a Stark Enterprises facility known as The Works as their base. The building was equipped for the teams use, it featured powerful security and stealth systems. It was maintained by a Stark Industries staff, leaving Force Works to focus on its duties, the facility was also administered by an artificial intelligence system called P. L. A. T. O. The Works also included living and training accommodations and could also produce hard-light holographs, although Force Works was officially led by the Scarlet Witch, Iron Man would often act insubordinately and make his own decisions during their missions. Later it was revealed that Iron Man was under the influence of the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror, the team fought several battles, existed for just less than two years, and disbanded. Most of its members rejoined the Avengers or sank into obscurity, shortly after the disintegration of the group, Tony Stark died in his attempts to regain control of himself from Kang and was replaced by a younger, alternate-reality version of himself. The original Stark did not remain dead for long, due to the events that culminated in the Heroes Reborn storyline, a new version of Force Works was mentioned as being active and sent to Iowa as a part of the Fifty State Initiative. Although no members were shown or even named, Force Works was again mentioned as a team in Iron Man, Director of S. H. I. E. L. D. #33, when War Machine was sent into space to deal with attacking Skrulls, investigating a Stark Satellite, he discovered Cybermancer there, and it was implied by War Machine she was a member of Force Works. Iron Man Century Cybermancer Moonraker Scarlet Witch Spider-Woman U. S, Agent War Machine Wonder Man Cybermancer The group was adapted into the supporting cast of the 1994–1996 Iron Man animated series. For the series, Hawkeye appeared in place of U. S. Agent, shortly after the characters were written out of the series, Force Works was canceled at issue #22. Mandarins Minions Force Works I at Marvel Wiki Force Works II at Marvel Wiki Force Works at the Comic Book DB Force Works at the Grand Comics Database Force Works at the Comic Book DB

Force Works
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Cover to Force Works #1, July 1994. Pencils by Tom Tenney.
Force Works
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Force Works as seen in Iron Man.

45.
Marvel Team-Up
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Marvel Team-Up is the name of several American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series featured two or more Marvel characters in one story, the original series was published from March 1972 through February 1985, and featured Spider-Man as the lead team-up character in all but ten of its 150 issues, and in six of its seven annuals. It was the first major ongoing series for Spider-Man, being preceded only by the short-lived The Spectacular Spider-Man magazine. Of the issues that did not star Spider-Man, the Human Torch headlines six issues, the Hulk, four, publication of most of the issues starring the Human Torch coincided with that of Giant-Size Spider-Man, an alternate Spider-Man team-up-themed series by the regular Marvel Team-Up creative team. When cancelled with #150, the title was replaced by Web of Spider-Man, the second series was published for 11 issues from September 1997 through July 1998 and originally featured Spider-Man, Namor the Sub-Mariner was the featured character starting with #8. From 1995 to 1997, a series titled Spider-Man Team-Up fulfilled much the same purpose as the original title. The third Marvel Team-Up series, written by Robert Kirkman, began publication in January 2005 and this volume often reintroduced lesser-known Marvel characters that had fallen into obscurity. The spirit of Marvel Team-Up was carried on by Avenging Spider-Man, the series debuted with a March 1972 cover-dated issue featuring Spider-Man and the Human Torch in a story by writer Roy Thomas and artist Ross Andru. The main artists on the series for the first several years were Andru, Gil Kane, Sal Buscema, in 1974, Marvel started publishing Giant-Size Spider-Man, which was a quarterly 68-page comic that lasted for six issues which complemented Marvel Team-Up. The series featured team-ups, with each featuring a new story with a back-up reprint, except the last issue. Due to the limitations of the typically single-issue team-up stories, the supporting cast of Spider-Mans other titles rarely appeared in Marvel Team-Up, the series often featured non-superhero characters in the co-star slot. DeMatteis recounted, I was always attracted to the more obscure characters and you could crack them open and really develop them. I just looked at these characters as more inviting than the mainstream. I wanted room to play and those characters gave me all the room I wanted, and lets fact it, our lead character was as mainstream as you can get, so the obscure ones made for a nice contrast. With issue #47, the series had a crossover with Marvel Two-in-One #17, jean DeWolff was introduced as a supporting character in the Spider-Man/Iron Man story in issue #48. John Byrne, who would become the artist on The Uncanny X-Men. Byrne and his Uncanny X-Men collaborator, writer Chris Claremont worked together on issues of Marvel Team-Up. Captain Britain, a character created for Marvel UK, made his first appearance in an American comic book in Marvel Team-Up #65, karma, a character that later joined the New Mutants, was created by Claremont and artist Frank Miller in #100s lead story

46.
Journey into Mystery
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Journey into Mystery is an American comic book series initially published by Atlas Comics, then by its successor, Marvel Comics. Initially a horror anthology, it segued to giant-monster and science fiction stories in the late 1950s. Beginning with issue #83, it ran the superhero feature The Mighty Thor, created by writers Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and artist Jack Kirby, and inspired by the mythological Norse thunder god. The first Journey into Mystery series was initially a horror-fantasy anthology published by Marvel Comics 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics, artist Joe Kubert, who would later become one of the main war comics artists for DC Comics, drew the story The Hog in Journey into Mystery #21. Issue #23 was the first to be approved by the Comics Code Authority, the title was caught in the collapse of Atlas distributor, and publication was suspended for a year between issues #48 and #49. Xemnu the Living Hulk, a huge, furry alien monster first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #62 The character reappeared in issue #66, since then the character has been a mainstay in the Marvel Universe, and was renamed Xemnu the Titan. Journey into Mystery #69 and the teen-humor title Patsy Walker #95 are the first modern comic books labeled Marvel Comics, beginning with issue #83, the title starred the Norse god superhero Thor. The anthological stories, by now primarily science fiction-fantasy, gradually diminished after this and they were dropped entirely with issue #105, when the Thor feature expanded from 13 to 18 pages. With the previous issue, the logo had changed to Journey into Mystery with the Mighty Thor. In 1965, the title was Marvels biggest seller and its final issue was #125, after which the series was retitled The Mighty Thor in its trademarked cover logo and simply Thor in its postal indicia copyright notice. Thors evil adoptive brother Loki was introduced in issue #85, other adversaries for the new hero included the Radioactive Man introduced in #93, the Enchantress and the Executioner in #104, the Absorbing Man in #114, and the Destroyer in #118. An oversized annual publication, featuring Thor, was released in 1965, Comics historian Les Daniels noted that the adventures of Thor were gradually transformed from stories about a strange-looking superhero into a spectacular saga. A second Journey into Mystery ran 19 issues, whereas those titles generally presented original stories, these new books would instead adapt genre classics and other stories. With the four titles debuts set to be staggered over the course of four months,2, Chamber of Chills, Supernatural Thrillers, and, with a late start, Worlds Unknown. Most issues also included a story from Marvels 1950s predecessor. As a consequence of the company-wide crossover Heroes Reborn, Thor ceased to be the focus of his own series, the Thor title resumed its original numbering based on the 1990s Journey Into Mystery and intervening issues of Thor in 2009, with Thor #600. Starting with issue #622, the series for a time had its title restored to Journey Into Mystery. Thors supporting cast returned as the focus of a run written by Kieron Gillen, who had written Thor from #604 to #614, starring was the Thor antagonist Loki, who had been reincarnated as a child following his sacrifice in the series Siege

47.
Marjorie Liu
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Marjorie M. Liu is an American New York Times best-selling author and comic novelist. Her paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels include most notable The Hunter Kiss and her work for Marvel Comics include NYX, X-23, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men. She also writes Monstress for Image Comics for which she was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series, marjorie M. Liu was born in Philadelphia in 1979, and grew up in Seattle, Washington. Her father is Taiwanese, while her mother is an American of French, Liu majored in East Asian Languages and Cultures and minored in Biomedical Ethics at the Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the process, she became a fan of the franchise herself and she graduated in May 2003, and was soon admitted to the bar. Despite enjoying law school, Liu was disillusioned with the life of a lawyer by the time she graduated and it was published in November 2007. She eventually wrote a sequel to Tiger Eye, as well as A Taste of Crimson, the sequel to Liz Mavericks Crimson City, which was published in August 2005. Seeing a little boy dressed as Spider-Man at a convention in Tucson, Arizona, Liu remarked to her former literary agent, Lucienne Diver. After writing the X-Men novel Dark Mirror in 2005, Liu began talking with Marvel editors about doing work for them. It was three years later that she got her first assignment, the X-Men spin-off NYX and she served as co-writer on Marvels Daken, Dark Wolverine with Daniel Way, and wrote the X-23 series, which ended with #21. Liu is currently living in Boston where she continues to write and she also teaches a course at MIT on comic book writing and participates at the VONA/VOICES Workshop as guest lecturer at UC Berkeley for popular fiction. Liu wrote the final 21 issues for Marvels Astonishing X-Men series with artist Mike Perkins from 2012 to 2013, the series received media attention for featuring Marvel Comics first gay wedding between Northstar and longterm partner Kyle in issue #51. According to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, the issue comes as a response to real worlds legalization of same sex marriage in New York, Liu was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in 2013. Her latest comic series, Monstress, has gained wide publicity as it explores racism, the effects of war. She has been living in Boston with author Junot Diaz since 2011 and her favorite TV shows include Stargate, Castle, Lost Girl, and The Amazing Race

48.
Nick Spencer
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Nick Spencer is a comic book writer and former politician. As a comic writer, he is known for his creator-owned titles at Image Comics, his work at DC Comics. While in college, Spencer wrote three pitches to Marvel Comics soon after the Marvel Knights imprint launched in 1998, according to Spencer, Joe didn’t like the first two but the third one was a Black Cat pitch that was a Jackie Brown kind of Tarantino-esque thing. He said he liked that one but they weren’t going to do anything with anybody new at the time, after another pitch was rejected, this time by Oni Press, Spencer went on to work in politics. He twice ran for the Cincinnati City Council as a candidate of the progressive Charter Party, Spencer also worked for a Democratic politician. He later moved to New York City and successfully pitched Existence 2.0 to Jim Valentino of Image Comics, the first issue was released in July 2009. A second miniseries, Existence 3.0, followed in November, in 2010, Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to Existence 2.0, and a film is in development through Platinum Dunes with Miles Millar and Alfred Gough to adapt and executive produce. Spencer also wrote Forgetless and Shuddertown at Image, club review of Shuddertown stated that Spencer has become one of the finest practitioners of crime noir in comics. Spencers first ongoing series, Morning Glories, was released in August 2010, agents monthly debuting in November 2010. He was scheduled to take over as the writer of Supergirl in January 2011 with issue #60, Spencer is writing Iron Man 2.0, a new War Machine ongoing for Marvel Comics which debuted in February 2011. Spencer will also be taking over writing duties on Secret Avengers from Ed Brubaker as of #13. It was announced at the Emerald City Comic Con that Spencer has signed a contract with Marvel. Spencer is one of three writers that worked on Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn, a relaunch of Marvel Comics Ultimate Marvel line, along with Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis. Existence 2. 0/3.0 #1-3, #1-4 collected as Existence 2. 0/3. E. H. U. N. D. E. R. Agents collected as, Volume 1 Volume 2 Iron Man 2.0 #1-12 Palmer Addley is Dead collects, a Mockingbird collects, How to MA. I. M. A Mockingbird Avengers vol.5 #12-17 Volume 3, Prelude to Infinity Evolve Strong The Signal Sent, to the Light Avengers World #1-16 Volume 1, A. I. M. Volume 1, Everybody Loves Team-Ups collects, Ant-Man Annual #1 Ant-Man, Last Days #1-4 Volume 2, Small-Time Criminal #5-9 Captain America, Volume 1, Not My Captain America #1-6 Avengers, Standoff. Volume 1, Hail Hydra #1-6 Civil War II, The Oath #1 Arrant, existential Comics, Talking to the Creators of Existence 2.0

49.
Secret Wars (2015 comic book)
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Secret Wars is a 2015 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. It recalls the original, similarly-named 1984–1985 miniseries, the storyline involves the Marvel Universe combining with various other alternate universes into Battleworld, a planet whose domains exhibit the aspects of the various universes. The planet itself is divided in many territories that are mostly self-contained, various versions of individual Marvel characters can be present multiple times on the Battleworld. For example, there is a Tony Stark present in many of the territories where the Kingdom of Manhattan has both the Earth-1610 and the Earth-616 versions. The stories depicted in the miniseries about each characters powers. The core limited series was originally to be eight issues long, but was decided to extend to a ninth. The mini series are in three categories, which are Battleworld, Warzones, and Last Days, one of the core miniseries is Ultimate End which ends the Ultimate Marvel imprint after 15 years. Ultimate End is written by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley, the series was introduced with two issues in May 2015, then ran monthly until December. The series began with a nine issue mini series and came out of the current Avengers, the basic premise involves the collision of the Marvel 616 Universe with the Ultimate Marvel 1610 Universe which destroys both. Pieces of the two universes are mysteriously saved and combined with other post collision universes creating the Battleworld. Numerous tie-in miniseries and ongoing titles fleshed out the event with many of them revisiting previous Marvel events such as Civil War, Age of Apocalypse, Days of Future Past and Armor Wars. All of the tie-ins were aligned into one of three subtitles during the event consisting of Last Days, Battleworld, and Warzones, Heroes from each universe confront one another. Maker sends a doomsday weapon and the Children of Tomorrow to Earth-616, Black Bolt, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, and Beast are killed and Stark Tower is destroyed. Meanwhile, Kingpin hosts a party of the incursion for villains. The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Punisher who kills all the villains, manifold begins teleporting heroes to the lifeboat. Cyclops merges with the Phoenix Force and destroys the Children of Tomorrow before being teleported onto the ship, Mister Fantastic and Black Panther pilot the ship to the center of the Incursion. A hull breach occurs, separating the part of the ship carrying Invisible Woman, Thing and they are destroyed by the Incursion before Mister Fantastic can rescue them. The world fades to white as the two Earths collide, Doctor Dooms mask appears out of the white void, before the white turns to black